The Seyfert 1 galaxy Zw 229-015 is among the brightest active galaxies being monitored by the Kepler mission. In order to determine the black hole mass in Zw 229-015 from Hβ reverberation mapping, we have carried out nightly observations with the Kast Spectrograph at the Lick 3 m telescope during the dark runs from June through December 2010, obtaining 54 spectroscopic observations in total. We have also obtained nightly V -band imaging with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope at Lick Observatory and with the 0.9 m telescope at the Brigham Young University West Mountain Observatory over the same period. We detect strong variability in the source, which exhibited more than a factor of 2 change in broad Hβ flux. From crosscorrelation measurements, we find that the Hβ light curve has a rest-frame lag of 3.86 +0.69 −0.90 days with respect to the V -band continuum variations. We also measure reverberation lags for Hα and Hγ and find an upper limit to the Hδ lag. Combining the Hβ lag measurement with a broad Hβ width of σ line = 1590 ± 47 km s −1 measured from the root-mean-square variability spectrum, we obtain a virial estimate of M BH = 1.00 +0.19 −0.24 × 10 7 M ⊙ for the black hole in Zw 229-015. As a Kepler target, Zw 229-015 will eventually have one of the highest-quality optical light curves ever measured for any active galaxy, and the black hole mass determined from reverberation mapping will serve as a benchmark for testing relationships between black hole mass and continuum variability characteristics in active galactic nuclei.

We present the discovery of KELT-21b, a hot Jupiter transiting the V=10.5 A8V star HD 332124. The planet has an orbital period of P=3.6127647±0.0000033 days and a radius of 1.586 0.040 0.039 -+ R J . We set an upper limit on the 1 planetary mass of M 3.91 P < M J at 3s confidence. We confirmed the planetary nature of the transiting companion using this mass limit and Doppler tomographic observations to verify that the companion transits HD 332124. These data also demonstrate that the planetary orbit is well-aligned with the stellar spin, with a sky-projected spinorbit misalignment of 5.6 1.91.7 . High-resolution imaging observations revealed the presence of a pair of stellar companions to KELT-21, located at a separation of 1 2 and with a combined contrast of K 6.39 0.06 S D =  with respect to the primary. Although these companions are most likely physically associated with KELT-21, we cannot confirm this with our current data. If associated, the candidate companions KELT-21 B and C would each have masses of ∼0.12 M ☉ , a projected mutual separation of ∼20 au, and a projected separation of ∼500 au from KELT-21. KELT-21b may be one of only a handful of known transiting planets in hierarchical triple stellar systems.

We report the discovery of a transiting exoplanet, KELT-11b, orbiting the bright (V = 8.0) subgiant HD 93396. A global analysis of the system shows that the host star is an evolved subgiant star with T eff = 5370±51 K, M * = 1.438−0.046 , and [Fe/H]= 0.180 ± 0.075. The planet is a low-mass gas giant in a P = 4.736529 ± 0.00006 day orbit, with M P = 0.195 ± 0.018 M J , R P = 1.37, surface gravity log g P = 2.407−0.086 , and equilibrium temperature T eq = 1712 +51 −46 K. KELT-11 is the brightest known transiting exoplanet host in the southern hemisphere by more than a magnitude, and is the 6th brightest transit host to date. The planet is one of the most inflated planets known, with an exceptionally large atmospheric scale height (2763 km), and an associated size of the expected atmospheric transmission signal of 5.6%. These attributes make the KELT-11 system a valuable target for follow-up and atmospheric characterization, and it promises to become one of the benchmark systems for the study of inflated exoplanets.

The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) project has been conducting a photometric survey of transiting planets orbiting bright stars for over 10 years. The KELT images have a pixel scale of ∼23″ pixel −1-very similar to that of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)-as well as a large point-spread function, and the KELT reduction pipeline uses a weighted photometric aperture with radius 3′. At this angular scale, multiple stars are typically blended in the photometric apertures. In order to identify false positives and confirm transiting exoplanets, we have assembled a follow-up network (KELT-FUN) to conduct imaging with spatial resolution, cadence, and photometric precision higher than the KELT telescopes, as well as spectroscopic observations of the candidate host stars. The KELT-FUN team has followed-up over 1600 planet candidates since 2011, resulting in more than 20 planet discoveries. Excluding ∼450 false alarms of non-astrophysical origin (i.e., instrumental noise or systematics), we present an all-sky catalog of the 1128 bright stars (6<V<13) that show transit-like features in the KELT light curves, but which were subsequently determined to be astrophysical false positives (FPs) after photometric and/or spectroscopic follow-up observations. The KELT-FUN team continues to pursue KELT and other planet candidates and will eventually follow up certain classes of TESS candidates. The KELT FP catalog will help minimize the duplication of follow-up observations by current and future transit surveys such as TESS.

We present the results of a three‐continent multisite photometric campaign carried out on the Algol‐type eclipsing binary system RZ Cas, in which the primary component has recently been discovered to be a δ Sct‐type pulsator. The present observations include, for the first time, complete simultaneous Strömgren uvby light curves together with a few Crawford Hβ data collected around the orbital phase of the first quadrature. The new observations confirm the pulsational behaviour of the primary component. A detailed photometric analysis, based on these observations, is presented for both binarity and pulsation. The results indicate a semidetached system where the secondary fills its Roche lobe. The appearance of the light curves reveals the presence of the mass stream from the secondary component and a hotspot where this stream impacts on the surface of the primary star. There are also some indications of chromospheric activity in the secondary. On the other hand, the pulsational behaviour out‐of‐primary eclipse can be well described with only one frequency at 64.1935 cd−1 similar to the main peak found by Ohshima et al. The existence of multiperiodicity is not confirmed in our data. Concerning the mode identification, our results indicate non‐radial pulsation in a high radial order (n= 6), with l= 2, |m|= 1, 2 as the most suitable. However, additional effects must be taken into account in the predictions. Moreover, the pulsation amplitude in the u band is larger than in b and v, which is unusual among the δ Sct‐type variables. This can be explained as due to pulsation in a high n value and close to the blue edge of the δ Sct region. On the other hand, the early data of Ohshima et al. have also been analysed and similar results are found concerning the frequency content and pulsational amplitude. Finally, a revision of all the photometric out‐of‐primary‐eclipse data sets available in the literature is made together with some additional unpublished data leading to interesting findings relative to changes taking place in the pulsation amplitudes and frequencies from season to season. Furthermore, multiperiodicity is probably present in some epochs.