ABSTRACT
There has been a lot of interest recently on the idea of finding a “replacement Earth” planet, arounda different star, to offer us the opportunity to beg in exploring space in the widest possible context. Surprisingly, many amateur astronomers have proven that they can contribute to this search, and even engage in findingtheir own exoplanets. Sadly, unlike comets, international naming conventions mean that you cannot namea planet after yourself but still, the excitement of finding a new candidate exoplanet is hard to beat. Even better, you can do it from your back yard. The main advance in technology that has made this possible is the availabilityof CCD cameras, that have virtually no noise and use small pixels. Before we consider what hardwareis required in detail, it is important to understand how one goes about discovering exoplanets.
