  Metal pollution in white dwarf atmospheres may be the accreted remnants of
planetary objects. After the discovery of disintegrating planetary objects
transiting WD 1145+017 (Vanderburg et al. 2015), undergraduates in the
University of Washington's Pre- Major in Astronomy Program (Pre-MAP) were
inspired to collect photometry of the brightest white dwarfs to hunt for
similar transiting objects around other metal-polluted white dwarfs. Prior
surveys have yet to make a detection of a transiting planet orbiting a white
dwarf, yet white dwarfs are still an attractive target for searches of small,
rocky planetary material. Since a typical white dwarf is Earth-sized, transits
of Earth-sized planets could have depths >50%, so even low S/N photometry has a
chance at discovering transiting material. We identified bright, northern,
metal-polluted white dwarfs in the SDSS DR10 white dwarf catalog, and observed
five targets with the Astrophysical Research Consortium Small Aperture
Telescope (ARCSAT) 0.5-meter telescope at Apache Point Observatory. The ARCSAT
photometry had sufficient precision to detect Moon-sized objects or larger at
short orbital periods, though no such planets were detected for these targets.
We look forward to surveys which may find planets orbiting white dwarfs, such
as NASA's TESS, ESA's PLATO, and the Evryscope.
