Instrumental methods for professional and amateur collaborations in planetary astronomy

Abstract

Amateur contributions to professional publications have increased\nexponentially over the last decades in the field of Planetary Astronomy. Here\nwe review the different domains of the field in which collaborations between\nprofessional and amateur astronomers are effective and regularly lead to\nscientific publications. We discuss the instruments, detectors, softwares and\nmethodologies typically used by amateur astronomers to collect the scientific\ndata in the different domains of interest. Amateur contributions to the\nmonitoring of planets and interplanetary matter, characterization of asteroids\nand comets, as well as the determination of the physical properties of Kuiper\nBelt Objects and exoplanets are discussed.\n