The technique of transmission spectroscopy allows us to constrain the chemical composition of the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets. It relies on very high signal-to-noise spectroscopic (or spectrophotometric) observations and is thus most suited for bright exoplanet host stars. In the era of TESS, NGST and PLATO, more and more suitable targets, even for mid-sized telescopes, are discovered. Furthermore, a wealth of archival data is available that could become a basis for long-term monitoring of exo-atmospheres. We analyzed archival HARPS spectroscopic time series of four host stars to transiting bloated gas exoplanets, namely WASP-76b, WASP-127b, WASP-166b and KELT-11b, searching for traces of sodium (sodium doublet), hydrogen (Hα, Hβ), and lithium (670.8 nm). The archival data sets include spectroscopic time series taken during transits. Comparing in-and out-of-transit spectra we can filter out the stellar lines and investigate the absorption from the planet. Simultaneously, the stellar activity is monitored using the Mg I and Ca I lines. We independentely detect sodium in the atmosphere of WASP-76b at a 7-9 σ level. Furthermore, we report also at 4-8 σ level of significance the detection of sodium in the atmosphere of WASP-127b, confirming earlier result based on low-resolution spectroscopy. The data show no sodium nor any other atom at high confidence levels for WASP-166b nor KELT-11b, hinting at the presence of thick high clouds.

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Fulfilling the goals of space-based exoplanetary transit surveys, like Kepler and TESS, is impossible without ground-based spectroscopic follow-up. In particular, the first-step vetting of candidates could easily necessitate several hundreds of hours of telescope time -an area where 2-m class telescopes can play a crucial role. Here, we describe the results from the science verification of the Ondřejov Echelle Spectrograph (OES) installed on the 2-m Perek telescope. We discuss the performance of the instrument as well as its suitability for the study of exoplanetary candidates from space-based transit surveys. In spite of being located at an average European observing site, and originally being conceived for the study of variable stars, OES can prove to be an important instrument for the exoplanetary community in the TESS and PLATO era -reaching accuracies of a few tens of m/s with reasonable sampling and signal-to-noise for sources down to V∼13. The stability of OES is demonstrated via long-term monitoring of the standard star HD 109358, while its validity for exoplanetary candidate verification is shown using three K2 candidates EPIC 210925707, EPIC 206135267 and EPIC 211993818, to reveal that they are false positive detections. ‡ This article is based on the data collected with Perek 2-m telescope. Kabath et al. 2019 2