Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope

The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope is an astronomical observation system formed by two robotic telescopes that are conducting a survey for transiting exoplanets around bright stars. The project is jointly administered by members of Ohio State University Department of Astronomy, the Vanderbilt University Department of Physics and Astronomy Astronomy Group, the Lehigh University Department of Physics, and the South African Astronomical Observatory.

KELT Telescopes

KELT consists of two telescopes, KELT-North in Arizona in the United States, and KELT-South at the SAAO observing station near Sutherland, South Africa.
Each KELT telescope consists of a wide field medium format telephoto lens with a 4.2 cm aperture, mounted in front of a 4k × 4k Apogee CCD. Each can also be equipped with an alternative narrower field lens with a 7.1 cm aperture for a narrow angle campaign mode. KELT-North uses an Apogee AP16E camera, while KELT South uses an Apogee U16M. The optical assemblies and cameras are mounted on Paramount ME mounts manufactured by Software Bisque. The telescopes were made with off-the-shelf components, and were thus much cheaper than many observatories.

KELT-North is located at Winer Observatory in southeastern Arizona, about an hour's drive from Tucson. KELT-North was installed at Winer in 2005, and operated continuously until 2022, with occasional interruptions for equipment failures and poor weather. KELT-North was decommissioned in 2022.
KELT-South is located at the Sutherland astronomical observation station owned and operated by SAAO, about 370 kilometers North of Cape Town. KELT-South was deployed at Sutherland in 2009.

Goals

KELT is dedicated to discovering transiting exoplanets orbiting stars in the apparent magnitude range of 8 < V < 10. This is the region just fainter than the set of stars comprehensively surveyed for planets by the radial-velocity surveys, but brighter than those typically observed by most transit surveys.

Operations

Both KELT telescopes operate by sequentially observing a series of predefined fields around the sky all night, every night when the weather is good. All recordings are made with 150-second exposures, optimized to observe stars in the target magnitude range.

Discoveries

KELT has made several exoplanet discoveries and at least one brown dwarf to date. Yellow rows in the table below indicate the planet is contained in a binary system.

Exoplanets

Star	Constellation	Right ascension	Declination	App. mag.	Distance	Spectral type	Planet	Mass	Radius	Density	Orbital period	Semimajor axis	Orbital eccentricity	Inclination	Discovery year
KELT-2A	Auriga			8.77	420	F7V	KELT-2Ab	1.486	1.306		4.11379	0.05498	0.0	88.5	2012
KELT-3	Leo			9.8	580	F6V	KELT-3b	1.418	1.333	0.75	2.70339	0.04117	0.0	84.32	2012
KELT-4A	Leo			9.98	685	F8V	KELT-4Ab	0.878	1.706		2.9895933	0.04321	0.0	83.11	2015
KELT-6	Coma Berenices			10.38	724	F8IV	KELT-6b	0.43	1.19	0.311	7.84563	0.079	0.22	88.81	2013
KELT-6	Coma Berenices			10.38	724	F8IV	KELT-6c	3.71	1.16		1,276	2.39	0.21		2015
KELT-7	Auriga			8.54	420	F2V	KELT-7b	1.28	1.533	0.442	2.7347749	0.04415	0.0	83.76	2015
KELT-8	Hercules			10.85	664	G2V	KELT-8b	0.66	1.62	0.165	3.24	0.04550	0.04±0.05	82.65±0.90	2015
KELT-9	Cygnus			7.56	620	B9.5V	KELT-9b								2015
KELT-10	Telescopium			10.62	614	G0V	KELT-10b	0.68	1.4	0.308	4.17	0.05250	0?	88.61	2015
KELT-11	Sextans			8.04	323	G8/K0IV	KELT-11b	0.171	1.35	0.009	4.74	0.06±0.005	0.0007±0.0015	85.3±0.2	2017
KELT-12	Hercules			10.59	1200	F7III-IV	KELT-12b	0.95	1.78	0.209	5.03	0.06708	0.0	84.47±0.15	2017
KELT-13/WASP-167	Centaurus			10.571	1381	F1V	KELT-13/WASP-167b	<8	1.58		2.02	0.0365		79.9	2017
KELT-14/WASP-122	Puppis			11	816	G2V	KELT-14/WASP-122b	1.284	1.743	0.322	1.71	0.03	0.0	78.3	2016
KELT-15	Carina			11.39	1,068	G0V	KELT-15Ab	0.91	1.443	0.36	3.33	0.04	0	88.3	2015
KELT-16	Cygnus			11.72	1,469	F7V	KELT-16Ab	2.75	1.415	1.20 ± 0.18	0.97	0.02	0	84.4	2017
KELT-17	Cancer			9.23	743	A7V	KELT-17b	1.32	1.525	0.46	3.08	0.05		84.87	2016
KELT-18	Ursa Major			10.16	1,057	F4V	KELT-18Ab	1.18	1.57	0.377	2.87	0.04	0	82.90	2017
KELT-19	Canis Minor			9.86	987	A8V	KELT-19Ab	<4.07	1.91	<0.744	4.61	0.064		85.14	2017
KELT-20	Cygnus			7.58	446	A2V	KELT-20b	<3.382	1.741	<0.806	3.474	0.05	0?	86.12	2017
KELT-21	Cygnus			10.48	1,556	A6V	KELT-21b	<3.91	1.586	<1.24	3.612	0.05	0	86.46	2018
KELT-22/WASP-173	Sculptor			11.3	766	G3V	KELT-22/WASP-173Ab	3.47	1.285	2.02	1.386	0.02	0	85.2	2018
KELT-23	Ursa Minor			10.31	413	G1V	KELT-23b	0.94	1.32	0.503	2.26	0.03	0	85.37	2019
KELT-24	Ursa Major			8.33	316	F5.5V	KELT-24b	5.18	1.27	3.13	5.55	0.07	0.08	89.17	2019
KELT-25	Canis Major			9.63	1,443	A4V
KELT-26/WASP-178	Lupus			9.95	1,410	A1V	KELT-26/WASP-178b	1.41	1.94	0.238	3.35	0.06	0	84.45	2019