Follow Up of Transiting Hot Jupiters with the OpenScience Observatories

We have been using the Open University OpenScience Observatories (OSO) to undertake follow up observations of known transiting hot Jupiters for the past three years. Here we present recent system characterisation and transit timing results for WASP-52b and HAT-P-23b and report on the performance of the observatory. The OSO consists of two 0.4 meter class telescopes (PIRATE and COAST) used for undergraduate distance learning and research (Kolb et al 2018). The telescopes, located at Teide Observatory on Tenerife at an altitude of 2390m, can be operated remotely in real time for teaching or fully autonomously via an automated scheduler. Teide Observatory provides an excellent location with typical seeing of 0.6” and an average 280 clear nights per year. Our new observations, supplemented with additional data from a telescope located in the UK and previously published results, show that HAT-P-23b is slightly less inflated than previously reported and not eccentric. We find that a linear ephemeris is the best fit to the available timing data. For WASP-52b we slightly prefer a quadratic ephemeris indicative of period change. Further observations through the 2020-21 observing season should discriminate between the linear and quadratic ephemerides