Proposal #67

Dr. Karen Collins (Vanderbilt University) has requested ground-based, follow-up observations of recently discovered exoplanet Proxima Centauri b. This exoplanet is a suspected Earth-size planet orbiting in the habitable zone of our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri (V645 Cen). There exists a rough ephemeris of this target based on radial velocity measurements, so the predicted mid-transit times can vary +/- 6 hours. Therefore, it is requested that observations be as long as possible. The expected duration of the transit is less than two hours long. The transit depth is expected to be 5 mmag. However, because Proxima Centauri itself is a flare star, there may be large variations in the light curve.
The Southern hemisphere target Proxima Centauri has a magnitude range of 11.1 - 11.3 V.
Coordinates for Proxima Centauri (V645 Cen): R.A. 14 29 42.95 Dec. -62 40 46.2 (2000.0)
Filter (Sloan) i’
Predicted transit center point times doable from New Zealand (UTC) to observe ingress, total transit or egress:
5/2/17 08:03
5/13/17 12:31
5/24/17 16:59
6/27/17 06:23
7/8/17 10:50
7/19/17 15:18
9/2/17 09:10
9/13/17 13.37
9/24/17 18:05