  Photometry is presented of the Dec. 25, 2007 transit of HD 17156b, which has
the longest orbital period and highest orbital eccentricity of all the known
transiting exoplanets. New measurements of the stellar radial velocity are also
presented. All the data are combined and integrated with stellar-evolutionary
modeling to derive refined system parameters. The planet's mass and radius are
found to be 3.212_{-0.082}^{+0.069} Jupiter masses and 1.023_{-0.055}^{+0.070}
Jupiter radii. The corresponding stellar properties are 1.263_{-0.047}^{+0.035}
solar masses and 1.446_{-0.067}^{+0.099} solar radii. The planet is smaller by
1 sigma than a theoretical solar-composition gas giant with the same mass and
equilibrium temperature, a possible indication of heavy-element enrichment. The
midtransit time is measured to within 1 min, and shows no deviation from a
linear ephemeris (and therefore no evidence for orbital perturbations from
other planets). We provide ephemerides for future transits and superior
conjunctions. There is an 18% chance that the orbital plane is oriented close
enough to edge-on for secondary eclipses to occur at superior conjunction.
Observations of secondary eclipses would reveal the thermal emission spectrum
of a planet that experiences unusually large tidal heating and insolation
variations.
