Kepler-37 from a backyard telescope

I was going through some old emails today and chanced upon one from Todd Klaus. Todd is now the software lead at Moon Express, an unbelievably cool company trying to send robotic missions to the moon. Until a year or so ago Todd was a the lead engineer at Kepler. Anyway, the email in question was as follows

Hi Tom,

Here’s a color image of Kepler-37 and surrounding neighborhood, taken from my back yard. This image was created from a stack of ~300 individual images, shot through B, V, R, and L (broadband for detail) filters. I’m sure we could make out Kepler-37b if it were not so small!

Todd

For those how don’t remember, Kepler-37b is the a Moon-sized planet – the smallest exoplanet was have yet found. So, here is the image Todd took of Kepler-37.

kepler-37-full

Follow Todd on Twitter @toddklaus