Using nothing but a regular DSLR camera, a zoom lens and a home-made tracking base David Schneider was able to detect a planet orbiting another star – HD 189733 63 light years away. His set-up cost him just a few dollars.
He did it by looking for occlusion dimming, where the planet moves in front of the star and temporarily blocks it’s light . Although it was already known that a planet existed around that particular star, the possibilities are, literally, astronomic. just imagine a crowd-sourced exo-planet hunting project!
