12-26-2025, 11:45 PM
I'm an amateur astronomer with a decent backyard telescope, and I've been following the news about TESS discovering all these new exoplanets. It's got me wondering about the practical challenges of confirming these finds from the ground. I understand the transit method in theory, but how do smaller observatories or even advanced amateurs contribute to follow-up observations? Specifically, what kind of photometric precision is realistically needed to help rule out false positives, and is there a coordinated effort to point smaller scopes at these candidate stars? I'd love to hear from anyone who's tried to get involved in citizen science projects related to exoplanet validation.