We observed two secondary eclipses of the exoplanet WASP-12b using the Infrared Array Camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The close proximity of WASP-12b to its G-type star results in extreme tidal forces capable of inducing apsidal precession with a period as short as a few decades. This precession would be measurable if the orbit had a significant eccentricity, leading to an estimate of the tidal Love number and an assessment of the degree of central concentration in the planetary interior. An initial ground-based secondary-eclipse phase reported by Lopez-Morales et al. (0.510+/-0.002; 2010ApJ...716L..36L) implied eccentricity at the 4.5{sigma} level. The spectroscopic orbit of Hebb et al. (2009ApJ...693.1920H) has eccentricity 0.049+/-0.015, a 3{sigma} result, implying an eclipse phase of 0.509+/-0.007. However, there is a well-documented tendency of spectroscopic data to overestimate small eccentricities. Our eclipse phases are 0.5010+/-0.0006 (3.6 and 5.8um) and 0.5006+/-0.0007 (4.5 and 8.0um). An unlikely orbital precession scenario invoking an alignment of the orbit during the Spitzer observations could have explained this apparent discrepancy, but the final eclipse phase of Lopez-Morales et al. (0.510^+0.007^_-0.006_) is consistent with a circular orbit at better than 2{sigma}. An orbit fit to all the available transit, eclipse, and radial-velocity data indicates precession at <1{sigma}; a non-precessing solution fits better. We also comment on analysis and reporting for Spitzer exoplanet data in light of recent re-analyses.
The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) project is a small aperture, wide-angle search for planetary transits of solar-type stars. In this paper, we present the results of a commissioning campaign with the KELT telescope to observe the open cluster Praesepe for 34 nights in early 2005. Light curves were obtained for 69337 stars, out of which we identify 58 long-period variables and 152 periodic variables. Sixteen of these are previously known as variable, yielding 194 newly discovered variable stars for which we provide properties and light curves. We also searched for planetary-like transits, finding four transit candidates. Follow-up observations indicate that two of the candidates are astrophysical false positives, with two candidates remaining as potential planetary transits.