The search for extrasolar planets with BEST

The Berlin Exoplanet Search Telescope (BEST) is a small aperture telescope dedicated to the search for Jupiter-sized extrasolar planets. It was designed as a ground-based supporting facility for the CoRoT space mission (CNES), the first satellite designed to actively search for extrasolar planets. Primarily BEST is performing prepatory ground-based variability characterization of the target fields of the COROT space mission, but it also surveys additional fields for short-period extrasolar planets. From 2001 - 2003 during an initial phase BEST was located at the Turinger Landessternwarte Tautenburg (TLS), Germany. In 2004 the system was relocated to the Observatoire de Haute Provence (OHP), France and observations have been performed on a regular basis since late spring of the same year. Compared to TLS the new site provides better weather conditions which improve the observational yield.