First results of the Kourovka Planet Search: discovery of transiting exoplanet candidates in the first three target fields

Abstract

We present the first results of our search for transiting exoplanet\ncandidates as part of the Kourovka Planet Search (KPS) project. The primary\nobjective of the project is to search for new hot Jupiters which transit their\nhost stars, mainly in the Galactic plane, in the $R_c$ magnitude range of 11 to\n14 mag. Our observations were performed with the telescope of the MASTER\nrobotic network, installed at the Kourovka astronomical observatory of the Ural\nFederal University (Russia), and the Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph,\ninstalled at the private Acton Sky Portal Observatory (USA). As test\nobservations, we observed three celestial fields of size $2\\times2$ deg$^2$\nduring the period from 2012 to 2015. As a result, we discovered four transiting\nexoplanet candidates among the 39000 stars of the input catalogue. In this\npaper, we provide the description of the project and analyse additional\nphotometric, spectral, and speckle interferometric observations of the\ndiscovered transiting exoplanet candidates. Three of the four transiting\nexoplanet candidates are most likely astrophysical false positives, while the\nnature of the fourth (most promising) candidate remains to be ascertained.\nAlso, we propose an alternative observing strategy that could increase the\nproject's exoplanet haul.\n