Astronomy PhD to review a high school student's transit photometry calculations

We are a college admissions consultancy in India. We are looking for an astronomer to act as technical reviewer for one student's research project, Sep 1, 2026 - Feb 2027. THE PROJECT She is building a catalogue of stars positioned to observe Earth transit the Sun. Stage one reproduces a published 2020 result as a validation step. Stage two extends it: for each star, what is the smallest telescope that could detect Earth's 84 ppm transit depth against photon noise and solar variability. The output is a short paper, around 1,500 words with one table, aimed at Research Notes of the AAS. THE ROLE AND DELIVERABLES This is a review and critique role. She does the analysis, you tell her where it is wrong and why. Each session, we would want your assessment of: the photon budget and signal-to-noise treatment the limb darkening correction the solar variability floor and how she has sourced it whether her assumptions are defensible and the question well framed After each session, a short written summary of what you flagged, so she has something to work from and we have a record. SKILLS REQUIRED PhD or PhD candidate in astronomy, astrophysics or observational physics Hands-on photometry experience: photon budgets, signal-to-noise estimation, detector noise sources Python, astropy, querying public catalogues Ability to explain a correction to a bright sixteen year old without either talking down or losing her US based Preferred: transit photometry or exoplanet detection specifically, prior experience supervising first research projects, and a publication record we can look up on NASA ADS. COMMUNICATION AND HOW WE WORK Scheduled sessions, roughly two to four hours a month, rather than ad hoc messaging. We book them, we sit in, and we handle all admin so your time goes on the physics.