In this talk I will give a quick overview of the Europlanet Telescope Network and the different telescopes on the network. The talk will be focused on the telescopes that are more suitable for planetary observations but other facilities more suitable for other science topics on planetary science (from astrometry to spectroscopy and exoplanets transits) will be presented.

The James Webb Space Telescope will be the premier observatory for infrared planetary science over the coming decade. This presentation will summarise the JWST Giant Planet Atmospheres programme during the first year of science operations (Cycle 1, 2022-23), which is set to observe all four giants. These observations have been made possible by a combination of Guaranteed-Time Observing (GTO), Early Release Science (ERS), and General Observing (GO), and their combination permits comparative planetology of the Gas and Ice Giants. This presentation will summarise the science goals at each planet and advocate for a ground-based campaign to support the JWST observations including an important role for amateur astronomers providing the temporal context to these JWST observations.

The Europlanet Telescope Network offers a range of possible advantages for amateur imaging of planets. Prominent among these is pre-planned visible-colour imaging with improved resolution due to larger telescopes and/or better seeing at professional observatories. This talk will suggest several examples inspired by recent ‘pro-am’ collaborations concerning Jupiter.
1. Hi-res imaging to determine the nature of certain features, e.g. circulations in the South Temperate domain (cyclonic features before and after Clyde’s Spot).
2. Obtaining a zonal wind profile by pairing hi-res images from the ETN in Europe and from another facility in the Far East, 10 hours apart.
3. Support for Juno by taking hi-res images of the sub-spacecraft longitudes for a few days around perijove, thus enabling tracking of elusive features that Juno will image closely, e.g. in the North Polar Region (whose dynamics is still uncharacterised) and the Equatorial Region (where features vary greatly in speed and variability).

This talk will present a professional and amateur collaboration to investigate the nature and variability of a large-scale cloud discontinuity on Venus atmosphere recentely discovered by the Akatsuki mission and later monitored with ground-based observations including amateur data. I will also present some of the characteristics of the Kryonery Observatory in Athens, which is one of the telescopes participating in the Europlanet Telescope Network

Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. This makes Venus an easy target to identify, however this makes Venus a challenging target to observe by a large telescope. While most of current planetary science demands observations by large or space-based telescopes, for Venus science small telescopes can play an important role in scientific analysis. Well-known examples are cloud morphology studies. And small telescope observations can provide more information, such as brightness.
Surprisingly the temporal variability of Venus’ U band brightness is poorly known, although it is important to understand the energy budget of the plant. Moreover, the phase curve at the U band is not so well defined, which could be used to analyze scattering by the clouds. The variability of Venus’ brightness in the visible wavelength range is not so well defined neither. I would like to present recent measurements of the brightness of Venus during the Venus dayside campaign with BepiColombo and Akatsuki spacecraft in 2020, in a comparison with past measurements. The data, acquired by the 1.23m CAHA and the 1.2m STELLA telescopes, contributed to the analysis of the campaign dataset to better characterize an unidentified absorber in the clouds.
I plan to continue Venus observations by small telescopes to quantify the variability of Venus’ brightness and the phase curves. These observations will be done during the next Venus dayside campaign opportunity in June-July 2022, which will be introduced in my talk. You are very welcome to participate in this campaign. Close Abstract

I will present the Europlanet Mentorship platform. The Europlanet Mentorship platform aims to help early career scientists to develop expertise, ask questions and discuss career plans with the support of more established members of the planetary community.

The Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI) is funded by Horizon 2020 to support the research activities of the European planetary science community and foster international collaborations. he programme enables European observers (professional scientists and amateur astronomers) to visit and observe at telescope facilities of the so-called Europlanet Telescope Network (ETN) through its Networking Activity 2 (NA2) Observational Programme.
The Europlanet 2024 RI NA2 programme supports travel, per diem and local accommodation costs of up to two observers for each observation in order to observe at telescope facilities which are part of the ETN. The programme also reimburses the incurred service costs of the telescope facilities at which the observations are conducted. Applicants can submit proposals to the NA2 Observational Programme through an open call with a rolling deadline until 31 June 2023 at 00:00 (12pm) or as long as the budget for this call is not exhausted. However, Europlanet does not award observing time. The observing time should ideally be negotiated with the observatory prior to applying for funding by Europlanet.
The anonymised proposal will be sent to the NA2 Science Advisory Panel for peer review which will decide upon granting on a bi-monthly basis. The NA2 Review Board will then decide upon funding based on the recommendation of the Science Advisory Panel and on socio-economic measures.
Since the application to the Europlanet 2024 RI NA2 call should be submitted using a three-page template (available on the call page), in this talk we will unravel the funding proposal form, section by section and following a practical example of the observation of planets in the solar system.

During its four years of photometric observations the Kepler space telescope has detected thousands of exoplanet candidates. One of Kepler's most intriguing tools has been the confirmation and characterization of multiplanet systems via Transit Timing Variations (TTV). Unfortunately, there were many interesting multiplanet candidate systems displaying TTVs on such long time scales that the existing Kepler observations were not sufficiently long enough to confirm and characterize them. To contribute to Kepler's outstanding science we have organized KOINet, a near-global photometric follow-up network of meter-sized telescopes. In this talk we present our three main scientific outcomes and experience acquired leading such a network.

Exoplanets – planets outside the Solar system are common in our Galaxy, however questions how they form remain. Following recent studies of different aspects of the planetary formation process, we come to the same conclusion that the better we know the host star, the more precise characterization can be made of planets orbiting it. For example, the effective temperatures of stars are closely connected to the stellar radii, whereas the planetary building blocks are very much the same ones that make up the host stars. As the number of discovered and confirmed planets increases, we find that a lot of those stars do not have accurate spectroscopic parameters or elemental abundances determinations. We are using the EPN-TN facility – VUES spectrograph at Moletai Astronomical Observatory, Lithuania with a 1.65-m telescope to determine the precise atmospheric parameters and extended chemical composition of a number of planet hosting stars. Together with available archival data we aim to homogenously determine the precise atmospheric parameters and extended chemical composition (including Li, C/O and Mg/Si ratios, and a wide range of other chemical elements) of stars providing constrains and data for the planet formation models, particularly in respect to the star-planet connection. In this talk I will review the current state of the exoplanet-hosts studies and perspectives using the EPN-TN facilities.

The EC funded OPTICON-Radonet Pilot programme is an 15MEuro H2020 grant which provides trans-national access to a wide range of 2-11m optical telescopes and a range of radio facilities. It also supports a mixed robotic-small telescope network for triggered followup of transients. I will describe these networks, explain how access is granted and explore the synergies with the Europlanet small telescope networks. (This talk is relevant to all sessions)

The ExoClock Project (www.exoclock.space) is an open, integrated, and interactive platform, designed to maintain the ephemerides accuracy of the Ariel targets. Ariel is ESA's medium class space mission prepared for launch in 2029 to study a large number of exoplanets to better understand their nature. ExoClock aims to monitor the Ariel targets and provide transit timings to increase the mission efficiency.
In the project we use all currently available data (literature observations, observations conducted for other purposes, both from ground and space) to make the best use of resources. ExoClock is open to contributions from a variety of audiences — professional, amateurs and industry partners — and it aims to continuous monitor the Ariel targets with a verified list of ephemerides. Apart from its role to support Ariel, ExoClock acts as a service by providing the verified ephemerides for further use by the wide exoplanet community. In this presentation the organisation, updates and the current status of the ExoClock project will be described in detail. Moreover, results and future plans will be presented briefly.

Space telescopes such as Kepler, TESS and others greatly accelerated progress in exoplanetary science. Nevertheless, ground-based telescopes have still not lost their relevance in the study of already discovered exoplanets and in the discovery of non-transiting exoplanets in already known exoplanetary systems. EPV-TN is a great tool to help scientists in performing such observations effectively. In this talk, I will present investigations done using telescopes at the Molėtai Astronomical Observatory, which are part of EPN-TN.

The 72 cm Waltz Telesope, situated on the Königstuhl at an altitude of 560 m and owned by the Landessternwarte, part of the University of Heidelberg in Germany, has recently been equipped with a CCD camera, a high resolution fiber-fed echelle spetrograph (R~61000) as well as an iodine cell for precise radial velocity measurements of bright stars (V~6-8 mag). In addition, many smaller parts have been updated or added to the system, such as automated dome rotation, a calibration unit, an exposure meter and a guiding system. Python software has been developed both to control the instrument and all its subsystems (WaltzControl) as well as to reduce the observations and derive precise radial velocities from the iodine spectra (WaltzDRS). Much of the work has been carried out by students as part of their bachelor, master or PhD projects with the help of the electronic and mechanical workshops of the Landessternwarte. It is an explicit goal of the Waltz to provide students with hands-on experience regarding instrumentation and observing. The scientific purpose is to search for exoplanets around giant stars, which is a follow-up of our Lick Doppler search for planets around giant stars carried out from 1999 to 2011 and with SONG since 2015.

After attending a virtual workshop organized by the Spanish-Portuguese hub of the Europlanet Society, some amateur observers from Sabadell Astronomical Society get encouraged to apply for the use of IAC80 telescope in Teide Observatory (Canary Islands). It was a successful night as we were able to get a good light curve of exoplanet WASP-156b and contribute to the ExoClock database with this observation. In this talk we will share this motivating experience and show that it is not difficult for amateur observers to use this fantastic network that provides access to 16 different telescope facilities distributed all over the world, with telescopes up to 2 meters in diameter, 14 of which are either robotic or provide service observations.
Florence Libotte is member of the Board of the Sabadell Astronomical Society, member of GEOS group (European Group for Stellar Observation), and observer of variable stars and exoplanets.
Mercè Correa is member of the Sabadell Astronomical Society, member of GEOS group (European Group for Stellar Observation), member of the Advisory Commission of FAAE (Federation of Spanish astronomical associations) and observer of variable stars and exoplanets.

Disk-integrated optical data of asteroids vary in time. These so-called lightcurves reflect the rotation motion of the asteroids, their orientation with respect to the observer and the Sun, and the non-spherical shape. By having multiple lightcurves from different observing geometries, these properties can be uniquely derived by a lightcurve inversion method. The most commonly used method is the convex inversion, which allows us to derive physical properties such as rotation period, the direction of the spin axis, and a convex representation of the shape. Between 2017 and 2019, the ESO's large observing campaign led by Pierre Vernazza allowed us to obtain disk-resolved images of about forty of the largest main-belt asteroids by the VLT/SPHERE instrument. 
It turned out that the shape modeling with disk-resolved data requires the utilization of the disk-integrated data as well. Therefore, we triggered a small-scale observing campaign to obtain optical data for several asteroids that were observed by the VLT/SPHERE instrument. While disk-resolved data constrain well the shape and sometimes even the main topographic features, the disk-resolved data are essential for a precise determination of the rotation period and the direction of the spin axis. In this contribution, I will present the physical properties of asteroids that were observed within the recently completed 
ESO's large observing campaign as well as within our observing campaign focused on the disk-integrated optical data.

Due to the high utilization and oversubscription of large ground based telescopes there is still viability for smaller instruments to contribute to the observations of small Solar System bodies.
These smaller telescopes (0.4-1 m) can be used to observe multiple targets at multiple epochs up to 16-17 magnitudes and can provide data for e.g. shape modelling, or using fast cameras to collect data from occultations.

The impact of the growing number of artificial Earth orbiting satellites on ground-based optical astronomical observations is evaluated and an example of contamination of recent spectroscopic extra-galactic discovery is presented.

Studying the physical properties of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) is important for several reasons. NEAs could be the source of water on Earth, which was essential in the evolution of life. Today, because of potential collisions with our planet, they pose a threat to humanity. At the same time, they can be used as sources of rare materials for the industry. Lastly, they can provide us with a laboratory to study the nongravitational effects such Yarkovsky and YORP, which are significant in the evolution of the Planetary System as well as debris disks around other stars.
Because of their small size, NEAs are best studied during close passages to Earth. Then, even the smallest of them can be bright, but at the same time their sky motion increases, making them difficult for observations in traditional ways. A typical observing window for the smallest NEA lasts several days, shortly after its discovery. During that time, the object sweeps a long arc on the sky, and successful physical characterization requires a coordinated effort of a global network of telescopes, acting on alert.
In the talk, examples of successful observing campaigns of NEAs will be presented. The role of amateur astronomers with small telescopes will be emphasized. The observing strategies, which proved most useful in observations, will be discussed.

In this presentation, we will show some results of the study of seven selected near-Earth asteroids (Midas, 1998 OR2, 1998 HL1, 1999 AP10, 2008 AF4, 2004 FX31, and Apophis). The observational results were mainly obtained by photometric methods (rotational periods, color indices), complemented by polarimetry from the Crimea (albedo), and supported by radar observations from Arecibo (accurate determination of poles, sizes, and shapes).

Photometric observations of asteroids are regularly carried out at the 70-cm telescope at Chuguev Observatory of Institute of Astronomy of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. The main aim of these observations is to characterize surface, shape and rotational properties of asteroids of different dynamical groups and types. The best scientific output has been obtained when using supporting observations at several 0.7 - 2 m telescopes within the EUROPLANET network and the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON). We will present the obtained results for the selected near-Earth and main-belt asteroids as well as for the asteroids which were investigated within the Gaia mission survey.

The Parsec (PlAnetaRy SciencE Collaboration tool) service is a part of the EUROPLANET 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI) project. It is a tool for coordinating the Solar System observations allowing cooperation between amateur observers and researchers. In the presentation the base functionality 
of the service will be shown. We will show how to create an observational campaign and how to add observing requests for other users. The Parsec will also host the data from the Europlanet Telescope Network activity. This activity allows researcher to apply for observing time on various small telescopes in the network. All gathered data will be publicly available one year after the observation. We will show how to access this data using the Parsec service itself or Europlanet Vespa virtual observatory.

The Observatory of the International Center for Astronomical and Medical and Ecological Research (ICAMER) is located in the mountains of the North Caucasus on Terskol Peak (Kabardino-Balkaria Republic, Russia, altitude 3150 m, international code B18). The observatory has the following observation complexes: - Zeiss-2000; - Zeiss-600. The Zeiss-2000 telescope is equipped with a position observation camera with BVRI filters, a Multi Mode Cassegrain Spectrometer (MMCS), a high-resolution MAESTRO spectrometer and a dual-channel polarimeter. The technical characteristics of the instruments are given and the observational capabilities of the tools are shown. Spectrophotometric observations of some small bodies of the solar system are presented.

[Poster] Close Abstract

The Faulkes Telescope Project provides access to a global network of robotic telescopes via the Las Cumbres Observatory global network. Here we outline how to apply for observing time on the telescopes through the Europlanet Telescope Network, whether you are an amateur observer or a researcher, and we present an overview of the suitability of various observational targets given the available observing modes and the telescope aperture sizes (2m, 1m and 0.4m). The Faulkes Telescope Project was conceived to inspire school children with the wonders of space and continues to have education as its main focus. We describe current educational projects using the telescopes and how you can get involved with your own observational programme.

[Poster]

“Il cielo in salotto” ("The sky in your living room" in english) is a series of live events organised by EduINAF (the online magazine for teaching and outreach of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics) dedicated to sky passionates and dealing with astronomical events and the observation of the sky (https://edu.inaf.it/diretta/). During the past year we hosted four live events on our YouTube channel with great response from the public. The help and support of the Europlanet Telescope Network proved crucial in some of these occasions. As an example, the solar eclipse that occurred on June the 10th was hardly visible from Italy but we successfully obtained beautiful live observations ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY3JyUf19lw) from the Moletai Observatory (Lituania) and from the Science Center AHHAA (Estonia), part of the Europlanet Telescope Network. This collaboration continues and will be able to enrich many of the events planned for the future, with the incredible possibility of educating and entertaining both live and at a later time, through recorded videos to be distributed to schools and the press. [Poster]

We have photometry of Pluto spanning several decades. The amount of atmosphere and surface ice will affect its albedo. Since Pluto is no receding from the Sun, temperatures should begin to drop. This may cause more of its atmosphere to freeze out causing the surface to get brighter. This may also affect the light curve. This poster will give a brief review of Pluto's brightness and light curve. One objective of this presentation is to encourage further photometric studies.

[Poster] Close Abstract

Taurus Hill Observatory (THO), observatory code A95, is an amateur observatory located in Varkaus, Finland. The observatory is maintained by the local astronomical association Warkauden Kassiopeia. THO research team has observed and measured various stellar objects and phenomena. Observatory has mainly focused on exoplanet light curve measurements (over 180 measurements so far), observing the gamma rays burst, supernova discoveries and monitoring. We also do long term monitoring projects. Observatory main equipment are 16″ Meade ACF LX800, f/8 and 14″ Celestron C14 XLT (CGE), 3910/355.6, f/11, both equipped with Paramount ME Robotic Telescope Mounts. Both telescopes are also equipped with professional level CCD cameras (SBIG STT-8300M and ASI 2900 MM Pro). Taurus Hill Observatory and other similar pro-amateur based observatories have a good record in field of astronomy and especially in the light curve measurements and photometric monitoring. The research teams have the knowledge for making a good and high quality photometric light curve measurements. The results and publications that pro-am based observatories, like THO, have contributed, clearly demonstrates that pro-amateurs are a significant resource for the professional astronomers now and even more in the future. In the future the THO research team aims for more challenging astronomical research projects with professional astronomers and observatories. [Poster]

Since the discovery of the first extrasolar planetary system, several efforts have been made to understand the interaction between exoplanets and their host stars. One can shed light on the several physical characteristics of an exoplanet by studying such interactions. In this work, we use the CESSI-Star Planet Interaction Module to perform rigorous parameter space study for a far-out star-planet system by varying the magnetic field strength of both the planetary magnetosphere and the stellar wind emanating from the host star. Our model self consistently gives rise to a magnetopause during this interaction process. The variation in the magnetopause stand-off distance for different combinations of the above parameters shows good agreement with the theoretical prediction. This work also reveals a specific trend in the relative behaviour of the planetary magnetosphere in response to stellar wind evolution. As the strength of the interplanetary magnetic field increases beyond 50nT, lobes of the magnetotail start to open up, and the stellar wind accumulates on the dayside of the planet. This study is relevant for exploring the exoplanetary atmosphere and calculating the auroral radio powers of different star-planet systems.

In the era of large sky photometric surveys, rapid and reliable processing of CCD images plays crucial role in characterising transient phenomena. The Black Hole Target Observation Manager (BHTOM) is a new tool based on Las Cumbres Observatory's TOM, developed under OPTICON RadioNet Pilot (ORP) H2020 programme for managing the observations of time-domain targets based on alerts from surveys like Gaia, ZTF or ASAS-SN. One of the most important features of BHTOM is an automatic calibration of photometric FITS images in order to obtain science-ready data points on light curves of observed targets. The system can be used to combine multiwavelength photometric data from multiple telescopes and instruments within minutes from observations. Therefore, the tool can be widely used for a variety of time-domain applications. [Poster]

Close Abstract

---

Near-Earth asteroid 2022 AB was first observed at GINOP-KHK, Piszkesteto on 2 January 2022. This ~ 70-m object passed the Earth at a distance of 3 700 000 km (9.6 lunar distance) on 20 January. Our campaign started on 4 January and we plan to continue our observations until 26 January. In our observations we use small (no larger than 2-m) telescopes located in USA, Canada, Spain, UK, Italy, South Africa, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, South Korea and Australia. We determined the asteroid's rotation period to be approximately 182 seconds. What distinguishes this object is the very favorable geometry of observation during this close-up. The phase angle changed in the range of 0.3° - 85.5°, which allows for accurate determination of the phase curve and absolute brightness H. We also collected photometric data in Johnson-Cousins B, V, R and I bands to determine colour indices and taxonomic type. We are currently analyzing the collected data. We are going to present the preliminary results at the Workshop.

[Poster]

Close Abstract

The Lucy mission consists of five flybys of Trojan asteroids to investigate the differences in surface and internal properties across the population of Trojan asteroids. From these five encounters we will be able to observe seven Trojan asteroids: (3548) Eurybates and its small satellite Queta, (15094) Polymele, (11351) Leucus, (21900) Orus, (617) Patroclus, and Meneotius. We made photometric observations of these targets with different ground-based telescopes, confirmed the taxonomy of asteroids, and obtained light and phase curves.

[Poster] Close Abstract

The 1.2 m telescope at Kryoneri Observatory is part of the Europlanet Telescope Network (EPN-TN). The facility is equipped with a wide-field twin imaging system, consisting of two fast-frame, sCMOS Andor Zyla 5.5 cameras at the prime focus. This system was developed in 2016, in the framework of the ESA-funded, lunar monitoring program NELIOTA, as described in Xilouris et al. (2018, A&A 619, 141), and has been performing lunar monitoring observations since 2017, resulting in over 130 NEO impact flash detections to date. The novelty of the NELIOTA system is the use of a large aperture telescope (larger than ever used before for this purpose) and the high-cadence achieved by two detectors observing simultaneously at a rate of 30 frames per second in two optical bands (R and I). The system provides a field of view of 17.0’x14.4’ and reaches limiting magnitudes of 18.7 mag in 10 s in both bands at a 2.5 signal-to-noise ratio level. The above characteristics make it a unique instrument that can be used not only for the detection of NEO impact flashes on the Moon, but also for any astronomy projects that demand high-cadence multicolor observations, e.g. asteroid occultations, variable source follow-up (e.g. microlensing events, contact binaries), and satellite tracking (e.g. the BepiColombo flyby).

[Poster]

For many decades, CCD observations of asteroids were usually limited to differential photometry. This was due to the difficulty of the "all sky" callibration. With the creation of the PanSTARRS catalogue, suddenly a single CCD frame became populated with photometric standards. They are so numerous, that one can even restrict the choice to solar analogue stars which makes it possible to use the unfiltered CCD observations of asteroids for callibration of their magnitudes to either Johnsons-Cousins, or Sloan SDSS bands. This in turn allows for studies of the asteroid magnitude-phase angle relation using small telescopes located in average astroclimate.

[Poster]

The goal of VESPA (Virtual European Solar and Planetary Access) is to build a Virtual Observatory (VO) for Solar System Sciences. The infrastructure is developed in the series of Europlanet programmes, reusing mechanisms which have been developed for the Astronomy VO. In particular, the EPN-TAP is currently a Proposed RecommendaCon at IVOA.

[Poster]