The PLANET Collaboration: Current Status and Future Prospects
M. Albrow
U. of Canterbury, NZ
I. van Bemmel, J.W. Pel, P.D. Sackett, P. Vreeswijk, M. Zwaan
Kapteyn Institute, NL
P. Birch, R. Martin, A. Williams
Perth Obs, AU
J.A.R. Caldwell, J. Menzies, K. Pollard
SAAO, SA
J. Greenhill, K. Hill, R. Watson
U. of Tasmania, AU
K.C. Sahu, S. Kane
STScI, USA
PLANET (Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork) is a worldwide collaboration of astronomers whose primary goal is the study of microlensing anomalies - departures from an achromatic point-source, point-lens light curve - through rapidly-sampled, multi-band, photometry. PLANET members have access to Dutch, South African, and Australian telescopes which are widely separated in longitude, giving the possibility of nearly continuous monitoring. The four participating telescopes are the Dutch/ESO 0.9 m, SAAO 1.0 m, Perth 0.6 m, and Hobart 1.0 m. Light curves are typically sampled every 1 to 2 hours, and monitoring is done in the V and I bands. The PLANET collaboration has nearly completed the data reduction of the 1995 campaign, during which a binary event was found. A preliminary on-line reduction facility was added in 1996 at the Dutch/ESO 0.9m telescope. PLANET has just completed its second campaign; we monitored about 6 events intensely and many more sparsely during the 1996 bulge season. Data analysis is now in progress.