Keynote presentation: Looking for Zebras When There Are Only Horses (Abstract)

Volume 46 number 1 (2018)

Dennis M. Conti

141 E. Bay View Drive, Annapolis, MD 21403; dennis_conti@hotmail.com

Abstract

(Abstract only) How many times have each of us thought we had made a “scientific discovery” only to realize that we were the victim of our own operational, instrumentation, or processing errors? With amateur astronomers contributing more and more to pro/am collaborations, the quality and credibility of our participation is becoming even more important. This keynote presentation will review some of the common pitfalls in producing research-grade photometry results and will give examples of some “horses” that we thought were really “zebras.” In addition, it will present some procedures and new techniques for obtaining higher precision photometry. These will be especially useful in helping amateur astronomers better identify false positives in support of the upcoming TESS exoplanet mission.