Follow-Up Observations of NASA’S Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Exoplanet Candidates Using the Union College and El Sauce Observatories

During the summer of 2019, Professor Francis Wilkin and I joined the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Follow-up Program Working Grouptoanalyze planet candidates from NASA's TESS mission,launchedin 2017. The satellite views the sky in sectors for only 28 days per sector, requiring ground based follow-up observations to identify events on target or eliminate false positives. I have used the Union College Observatory in Schenectady, NY and El Sauce Observatory in Chile to obtain 21 observations during the duration of my thesis. Of these, 8 were submitted to the follow-up team in Sub-category 1, (seeing limited photometry). After Submitting my thesis, I have moved on to the Las Campanas Observatories(LCO) Key Data Group, as partof the follow-up team.