RoboDurden

question 1: If the dimming would be to natural objects orbiting the star, i guess the mass must be so huge that the sun would emit a doppler frequency - so no natural objects that massive in orbit ?

which leaves 3 options: 1. Something massive fell into the star -> question 2: what would happen if Jupiter fell into our sun ? 2. Some object within the thousands of lightyears blocked the sun -> question 3: have you calculated some statistics on how probable this would be with all the stars Kepler had a look at ? 3. something non-natural is orbiting the star :-)

ah yes, a nice question. that adds to my statistics question. There are assumptions on how many objects are in the outer region of our solar system. Than taking into account how many stars Kepler was looking at.. there should some upper limit on how probable it would be that these objects blocked the light ?

hey this is Robo Durden from the Kickstarter comment section ! watching Tabby's star with a 0.4m http://www.meade.com/lightbridge-16-f-4-5-truss-tube-dobsonian.html of course. So what about no clouds, only 5% atmosphere but bright sun ?

That was meant as a support for the kickstarter campaign.. finding other possibilities in case we don't get to $100k.. supporting the campaign by making the attempt more colorful: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/608159144/the-most-mysterious-star-in-the-galaxy/comments?cursor=13397476#comment-13397475

a bit off topic.. still working on "the telescope above the clouds"-idea http://www.robosoft.de/kickmiss/skyscope2.png ... would it be any good to have telescope at 20km but in bright sunlight ? The 5% atmosphere might still be worse than 100% and clouds but no scattering of sunlight ?