On November 11, 2010 the BOS telescope at Sedgwick Reserve produced its first science result. BJ Fulton controlled the 0.8m telescope from Santa Barbara while the Santa Ynez Valley was enjoying good weather and seeing conditions. Taking 120 second exposures through the SDSS-I filter over a period of about six hours, BJ and Avi Shporer produced a well defined light curve for transiting planet HAT-P-25b.
The image to the right shows the light curve of the transit. The blue dots are the actual data points which are modeled by the red curve. The black dots below are the residuals after subtracting the model from the data. The x-axis is days and the y-axis is relative flux, with 1 being 100% of the stars brightness. Learn more about transiting planets here.
This test shows that the stability of the telescope and instruments over a few hours was very good and very able to do this kind of science. This is a fantastic accomplishment for all involved, and hopes to be the first of many!
You can find out more about HAT-P-25 and other extrasolar planets at the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia.