Ground-based Light Curve Follow-up Validation Observations of TESS Object of Interest TOI 3718.01

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is on a mission to discover thousands of exoplanets by looking at transits, periodic blockages of starlight from celestial objects. However, confirming an exoplanet’s existence requires more than what TESS provides, as candidates must be validated through ground-based follow-up observations. This paper presents the follow-up observations of TOI 3718.01, one such candidate. The aim of this investigation was to determine whether a transit had occurred at the expected time, duration, and depth. To achieve this, we extracted data from TESS and observations from George Mason University's 0.8m telescope to implement them in AstroImageJ. From there, a ground-based light curve was generated to observe the possibility of a transit. We resulted in an inconclusive analysis on whether TOI 3718.01 is an exoplanet, as there was a possibility that the transit was a Nearby Eclipsing Binary (NEB) instead. Thus, further investigation is necessary concerning false positives to achieve a decision.