14 New Light Curves and an Updated Ephemeris for the Hot Jupiter HAT-P-54 b

Volume 52 number 2 (2024)

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Heather B. Hewitt
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004; hbhewittt@asu.edu
Bradley Hutson
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Michael Brockman
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Elizabeth Catogni
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Rosemary Ferreira
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Gary Fussell
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Atea Johnson
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Chris Kight
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Ryan A. Kilinski
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Khatu Nguyen
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Ty Perry
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Elizabeth Quinlan
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Eva Randazzo
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Kellan Reagan
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Kinley Subers
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Federico R. Noguer
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Molly N. Simon
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-6004
Robert T. Zellem
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory (Code 667), Greenbelt, MD 20771

Abstract

Here we present an analysis of 14 transit light curves of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-54 b. Thirteen of our datasets were obtained with the 6-inch MicroObservatory telescope, Cecilia, and one was measured with the 61-inch Kuiper Telescope. We used the EXOplanet Transit Interpretation Code (EXOTIC) to reduce 49 datasets in order to update the planet’s ephemeris to a mid-transit time of 2460216.95257 ± 0.00022 BJD_TBD and an updated orbital period of 3.79985363 ± 0.00000037 days. These results improve the mid-transit uncertainty by 70.27% from the most recent ephemeris update. The updated mid-transit time can help to ensure the efficient use of expensive, large ground- and space-based telescope missions in the future. This result demonstrates that amateur astronomers and citizen scientists can provide meaningful, cost-efficient, crowd-sourcing observations using ground-based telescopes to further refine current mid-transit times and orbital periods.