EXOPLANET TRANSITS: MISSIONS

Scroll down to see our Featured Transit Observation!

To find events tailored to your specific location, use the Scientific Events Prediction Page.

To find out if you can observe an exoplanet transit, simply select a row and zoom by scrolling on the map. If you are near any location with a symbol, you are qualified for that scientific mission! If there is not a symbol near your location, you will not be able to observe the event. 

Each symbol has a meaning:

• Blue stars & shading = you can observe the entire event.
• Yellow triangles = you can observe the entire event but you may have temporary tracking difficulty when the star passes almost directly overhead (high altitude).
• Orange diamonds = you may miss the start or end of the event. These observations are still valuable!

You can click on any symbol for precise local observation times, target altitudes, and Sun altitudes.

Reading the Prediction Table:

• The Link automatically populates observing settings into the Unistellar app’s “Exoplanet transits” Science menu.
• Finder is an image of the target field of view. It may be rotated in your sky. 
• Date is the observation start date in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)
• Start, End UTC is the event’s observation start or end time in UTC. Your local start or end time may differ.
• Local is the observation start time in the time zone of your device’s browser.

Featured transit for June 2026:

TOI 3500.02

Help us confirm a TESS planet candidate!

Observation dates: June 15-16 UTC

Visibility: Oceania, South America, South Asia

Deeplink

TOI 3500.02 was originally identified as a solo-transit candidate by Planet Hunters TESS. In TESS observations from last spring, it looks like there may have been another transit, spotted by the group who originally tipped us off to the transits of TIC 393818343 b and TIC 139270665 b (the first planets we confirmed). As a now duo-transit candidate, this planet has a max period of about 700 days and a minimum period of ~18 days. So, we’re going to start trying to nail down the period with your help! RV data 1) shows that this is indeed a planet-mass object, so it’s not likely to be an eclipsing binary (thankfully), and 2) suggests that some period aliases are more likely than others. So we will observe transit windows corresponding to the most likely periods first.

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A little more on duo-transit candidates: Although the two transits that TESS observed were 700 days apart, that doesn’t mean that the orbital period (how long it takes the planet to orbit its parent star) is quite that long. TESS could have missed some transits in between the two it saw, since it wasn’t looking at the host star constantly. To calculate other potential periods, astronomers take the 700 day “longest possible period” and divide that by integer values. These are called “period aliases”. For example, a period alias of P/2 means we divide 700 by 2 to get a potential period of 350 days. That is just one alias, and would mean that TESS only missed one transit in between the times it observed. This May, we will observe a transit window that corresponds to the P/14 alias of TOI 3500.02, which corresponds to a period of 50 days. This P/14 alias is one of only 7 aliases left to explore, as recent TESS data has helped narrow down the period degeneracy of this target.  

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This transit begins the night of June 15-16 for observers in South America, where the ingress (transit beginning) will be visible from. The entire Egress (transit ending) will then be visible to Oceania and South East Asia on the local evening of June 16-17. Observations from New Zealand and Australia will be particularly important, as observers there can catch the entire egress.  See the globe video below to plan your observation!

How you can help confirm a TESS planet candidate :

Check the video below or in the tables above to see if this potential planetary transit will be visible to you!

• Once you have planned when you can observe, you must have the right observing settings or use a deeplink. You can use the deeplink below to observe for the entirety of the transit window. Or you can input the row’s recording settings manually to break your observation into one-hour increments by editing the “Duration” setting (this may improve your telescope’s tracking). 
  • Deeplink for full observation 
  • Observing settings: Gain = 20, Cadence = 3970ms, Exp Time = 3970ms, RA = 12h 27m 16s, Dec = -29deg 49′ 59”
• This is a very long transit (~8 hours!), so will not be able to observe the entire transit. Observing during ingress or egress and the 1-2 hours before and after is most valuable!
• Lastly, when you are done observing for the night, please submit this short REPORT FORM so we know to process your data.

If this is your first time observing an exoplanet transit, first check out our Exoplanet Tutorial page for an overview of the techniques involved. If you have any questions, please reach out to us at citizenscience@unistellaroptics.com.

Above: A video of the globe detailing the visibility of June’s transit of TOI 3500.02. When your location is shaded in red, the target is > 25 degrees above the horizon and visible to you.

New here?

Head to our Tutorial page linked below for guidance on how to master your Unistellar telescope and become a Planet Hunter. If you have any questions please contact us at citizenscience@unistellaroptics.com.