  We present the Young Exoplanet Transit Initiative (YETI), in which we use
several 0.2 to 2.6m telescopes around the world to monitor continuously young
(< 100 Myr), nearby (< 1 kpc) stellar clusters mainly to detect young
transiting planets (and to study other variability phenomena on time-scales
from minutes to years). The telescope network enables us to observe the targets
continuously for several days in order not to miss any transit. The runs are
typically one to two weeks long, about three runs per year per cluster in two
or three subsequent years for about ten clusters. There are thousands of stars
detectable in each field with several hundred known cluster members, e.g. in
the first cluster observed, Tr-37, a typical cluster for the YETI survey, there
are at least 469 known young stars detected in YETI data down to R=16.5 mag
with sufficient precision of 50 milli-mag rms (5 mmag rms down to R=14.5 mag)
to detect transits, so that we can expect at least about one young transiting
object in this cluster. If we observe 10 similar clusters, we can expect to
detect approximately 10 young transiting planets with radius determinations.
The precision given above is for a typical telescope of the YETI network,
namely the 60/90-cm Jena telescope (similar brightness limit, namely within
+/-1 mag, for the others) so that planetary transits can be detected. For
planets with mass and radius determinations, we can calculate the mean density
and probe the internal structure. We aim to constrain planet formation models
and their time-scales by discovering planets younger than 100 Myr and
determining not only their orbital parameters, but also measuring their true
masses and radii, which is possible so far only by the transit method. Here, we
present an overview and first results. (Abstract shortened)
