SuperWASP: Wide Angle Search for Planets

Speaker: Rachel Street

The science motivating the SuperWASP project is driven by, but not limited to, the search for transiting extra-solar planets. Two dedicated robotic observing stations, in La Palma and South Africa, host a complement of 8 wide field (7.8 x 7.8 deg) cameras each and image a 487 sq deg area of sky in every exposure. A two-pronged observing strategy ensures high cadence 'stare' imaging of ~12 selected fields throughout every clear night while 'tile mode' observations provide data covering the whole sky once a night. I will discuss the potential of the extensive photometric database derived from these data, and address some of the issues associated with it, concluding with a summary of our results to date.