About the AMS

A photograph of AMS founder Charles P. Olivier (third from left) with members of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York (AAANY); taken September 29, 1945, at the University of Pennsylvania's Flower Observatory. At that time, Dr. Olivier was Chairman of the UP Astronomy Department and Director of the observatory. Photograph courtesy of Ed Oravec (shown second from left).

• Introduction
• Goals
• History
• Affiliates
• Getting Started
• Limitations to AMS Services
• Contact the AMS
• The Early Years of Meteor Observations in the USA

• To encourage and promote research activities of both amateur and professional astronomers who are directly interested in meteoric astronomy.
• To observe, monitor, collect information, plot and report on meteors, meteoric fireballs, meteoric trains, and related meteoric phenomena.
• To establish a network of radiometeor stations.
• To publish scientific materials dealing with meteoric astronomy.
• To publish a newsletter dealing with meteoric astronomy.
• To carry on any other scientific or public service activities relating to meteoric astronomy.

The corporation is managed by a three-person board of directors: the Executive Director, the Secretary, and the Treasurer. Other staff appointments are made at the annual Board of Directors' meeting. Operations Staff appointments include an Operations Manager, and coordinators for our Visual Program, Radiometeor Project, and Electronic Information. The corporate office remains at the SUNY-College at Geneseo, New York.

In recent years, advances in technology have made it possible for amateur meteor observers with fairly modest equipment to achieve professional-quality results and it is in these areas that the AMS Ltd. will concentrate its main efforts. We hope to help coordinate amateur-professional activities among observers who are too widely scattered to permit the usual close working relationships found in local groups.

We are interested mainly in visual, CCD camera, and radio observations of:

• sporadic meteor rates
• meteor shower rates
• meteor magnitude and other property distributions

• Statistical data reduction of visual meteor plots and counts
• Image processing of CCD frames with meteor images
• Radioscatter detection of meteors
• high quality spectroscopy of meteors
• Publication of monographs in meteoric astronomy and related areas

Dr. Olivier's work revolved around the single visual meteor observer, usually an amateur astronomer, who joined the AMS with the understanding that he (or she) would, as occasion permitted, submit observations on meteors and related phenomena. During the visual program's heyday, the AMS consisted of hundreds of such amateur observers, directed by volunteer regional coordinators, and often organized into state wide affiliate groups. Over the years, the observations submitted by these affiliate members served as the basis for hundreds of short scientific papers, along with a score of long, important works, printed in various astronomical journals, AMS bulletins, and parts of several observatory publications. Dr. Olivier's 1925 professional text, "Meteors," has become one of the classic reference sources for this field.

During the 1950's, the advent of more sophisticated techniques and a shift in emphasis in the professional community to photographic and radar techniques led Dr. Olivier to shift the research emphasis of the AMS to a long term statistical study of the sporadic meteor flux. Containing many years of previous observations, the AMS Visual Database formed the basis for four catalogs giving the average visual meteor rates seen for each hour of the night during the year (Olivier, 1960, 1965, 1974a, and 1974b). Three of these catalogs were for the northern hemisphere and one for the southern hemisphere. The northern hemisphere catalogs were average rates over the years 1901-1958, 1959-1963, and 1964-1972. Dr. Olivier continued this work throughout his retirement, and was completing the manuscript for a fifth catalogue at the time of his death in 1976.

Only 10 days before his death, Dr. Olivier passed the leadership of the AMS over to Dr. David D. Meisel. Dr. Meisel had literally grown up within the AMS, conducting amateur observations as a teenager and moving on to pursue a professional career in astronomy. Following the receipt of his Ph.D from Ohio State University, Dr. Meisel had continued to collaborate with Dr. Olivier in the area of comet and meteor studies, and the two had developed a close working relationship and friendship.

Upon receiving the mantle, Dr. Meisel's first challenge was to secure a suitable home and headquarters for the AMS. Dr. Meisel's institution, the State University of New York, College at Geneseo graciously accepted the organization, and since 1976, the AMS headquarters have been located in the Department of Physics and Astronomy there. For some 17 years, the public service and scientific activities of the AMS were supported in part by SUNY - Geneseo as a part of the astronomy program at the College.

These first years of Dr. Meisel's leadership were difficult ones for the AMS. The professional community was turning away from meteor work of any sort, and given the meager funds then available, the organization was only able to continue a few of Dr. Olivier's original goals. Nonetheless, the AMS continued to have a dedicated staff of amateur coordinators to help with its various modest research programs. The expenses for these programs often were paid by the coordinators themselves with no help from the society, and it was this volunteer effort which kept the AMS going during this rough transition period.

One such effort, the "AMS Radio Scatter Program," was founded in 1977. The Kansas Meteor Group of the AMS led by Walter Scott Houston had conducted pioneering radiometeor experiments in the late 1950’s. Much work was done in the professional community on radio- and radar- meteor observation, and by the late 1970's, advances in technology made sensitive receiving equipment practical for amateur use. The formal AMS program began to explore a new avenue in which amateur scientists could contribute to meteor astronomy beyond traditional visual observations. Many promising experiments were conducted in this area throughout the 1980's and early 1990's, with a working automated station developed by 1993.

Also in 1993, the organization was able to become the American Meteor Society, Ltd., thanks to a generous permanent endowment from the estate of Dr. Clinton B. Ford. In the United States, Dr. Ford was a well-known supporter of amateur astronomy with particular interest in variable stars. Throughout his life-time, he was a member of the AMS, having started observing meteors as a boy. His generosity has made possible the reorganization and modernization of the AMS along the lines described in this bulletin. Our new structure will enable the society to further the cause of meteor science for many years to come, while continuing the tradition of amateur-professional collaboration.

Affiliates fall into the following categories:

• Students - persons under age 18 who satisfactorily fulfill the initial observing requirements.
• Observers - persons over age 18 contributing at least once a year to the society's annual report or Meteor Trails.
• Associates - persons over age 18 interested only in meteor theory or otherwise not actively contributing to an AMS, Ltd. sanctioned observing program.
• Groups - Organizations of over 3 persons who participate in the work of the society. Three copies of Meteor Trails and other AMS documents are sent to one address.

• Students and Observers: US $6.50
• Associates: US $8.00
• Groups: US $10.00

Individuals desiring associate affiliation, or groups desiring group affiliation need only submit the appropriate amount to the AMS treasurer:

Karl Simmons
AMS Treasurer
44017 Woodland Court
Callahan, FL 32011
USA

One unfortunate fact must be stated: If you live in a city and cannot observe outside it, most meteor work is not practical due to the pervasive light pollution of the modern urban environment. We welcome as associate members those who may not be able to observe for this reason.

To become an observer or student affiliate of the AMS Ltd., the requirements for visual observers are: To go out on three clear, moonless nights, starting not earlier than 10 P.M., and make hourly counts of all meteors seen for a total period each night of at least 3 hours. The following data should be recorded:

1. Your location;
2. The date of observation;
3. The start time of your observations and type of time;
4. The condition of the sky at the starting time, noting any haze or other obscuration;
5. A total meteor count for each full hour you observe;
6. Any changes to the sky conditions during your observing period.

Note: More experienced meteor observers are welcome to submit full descriptive data and/or meteor plots in addition to hourly counts.

When you've completed these observations, mail your reports to us with dues for the current year. We will then provide you with an observing kit of charts, forms, and instructions, and admit you as an AMS observer affiliate.

Alternative forms of meeting the Affiliate membership requirements include the following:

• Those interested in radioscatter work should submit three hours of audio tapes with meteor signals on them.
• CCD or photographic observers should submit at least three separate frames with meteor trails on them.
• Those specializing in meteor spectroscopy should submit 1 good quality meteor spectrum with two calibrations of wavelength (either an artificial source or known natural source).

We do not deal in any way with meteorites or micrometeorites nor give out information as to how to recognize or hunt for them. Objects suspected of being meteorites such should be taken to a large public planetarium or museum for examination and referral to reputable dealers. We likewise do not have a program of micrometeorite collection and cannot offer any support for this.

Most of the story about nineteenth century meteor studies is contained in the pages of the American Journal of Science and Arts (AJS). The AJS was started in 1818, by Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864), a Yale College chemistry professor. Silliman was thrust into meteoric matters when he was asked to investigate an 1807 meteorite fall on Weston, Connecticut. Silliman became a target for President Thomas Jefferson's derision because Jefferson doubted Silliman's conclusion that a rock fell from the sky. Jefferson was a science hobbyist, but he was also a southern U.S. partisan. The President dismissed Silliman's claim by scoffing, "I would more easily believe that (a) Yankee professor would lie than that stones would fall from heaven." However, Silliman's belief in the cosmic origin of meteorites was unshaken and he taught it to his students. One of these students, Denison Olmsted (1791-1859), was the first astronomer to study the Leonid meteor stream and the first to invite amateurs to join him in astronomical research.

1833: Olmsted was awakened by a New Haven, Connecticut neighbor to witness the Leonid storm on November 13, 1833. Olmsted reported his findings to a local newspaper and asked its readers to contribute their observations so that he could analyze the astonishing phenomenon. Unexpectedly, his report was discovered by other papers and Olmsted received observations from the entire eastern half of North America. Widespread clear skies had allowed the public to see the display and knowledgeable people contributed their sightings.

1837: Olmsted's library research disclosed that high Leonid rates had occurred in 1831 and 1832. High rates also occurred in 1834-1836. Consequently, Olmsted desired to monitor the 1837 display, with the goal of determining the date of maximum. He realized that he alone could not possibly watch meteors several days in a row. So, for the first time, amateur observers were asked to join in a meteor study. Olmsted asked Edward Claudius Herrick (1811-1862) a New Haven amateur astronomer to join the effort. Olmsted also asked the following Yale students to assist him. Robert Bethel Claxton (1814-1882) became an Episcopal priest and college professor. Elisha Fitch (1813-1839) made many meteor watches before, during, and after full moons preceding the one in November 1837. This work enabled him to estimate the percentage of Leonids that would be overwhelmed by the full moon that coincided with the Leonid maximum. Without Fitch's data, Olmsted would have been unable to decide if the Leonids had appeared in unusually great numbers. Fitch became a U.S. Navy shipboard instructor of mathematics and navigation and died on active duty. Ashbel Bradford Haile (1806-1880) was a frequent observing partner of Edward Herrick's. The two men helped establish average meteor rates so that unusual rates, marking the return of a shower, could be detected. Haile contributed to meteor studies until he graduated from Yale medical school in 1842. Ebenezer Porter Mason (1819-1840) was a highly talented amateur who built two reflecting telescopes. The largest was a 12-inch with which he observed and sketched nebulae. John Herschel praised Mason's work for its accuracy. Mason also used the 12-inch to observe meteors during a Perseid shower. Mason had decided upon an astronomy career, but tuberculosis killed him shortly after his 21st birthday. Hamilton Lanphere Smith (1818-1903) collaborated with Mason in constructing and using telescopes. He became a professor of astronomy at Kenyon College, and later, Hobart College. Edward Strong (1813-1898) became a Congregational minister. David Tappan Stoddard (1818-1857) became a Christian missionary in Iran. Olmsted's invitation to these amateurs to join his research marked the beginning of a partnership that persists to this day.

1838-1862: Herrick was a voracious reader of domestic and foreign newspapers and scientific literature. He discovered that besides the "November meteors (Leonids)," observers had seen meteor showers, and sometimes storms, during certain dates in April, August , and early December. Herrick borrowed Olmsted's idea of soliciting observations from astronomers and amateurs in distant locations, in an effort to confirm the annual nature of the showers that we now call the Lyrids, Perseids, and Andromedids. For 24 years, Herrick coordinated national meteor watches of these showers and published the results in AJS. He demonstrated the contribution an amateur could make to meteor studies, and was acknowledged by astronomers in the U.S. and Europe for his work.

1857: Francis Bradley (1815-1893) was an observing partner of Herrick's. He moved to Chicago when he became an auditor for the Rock Island Railroad. Bradley was not a man to let his work interfere with meteors. He watched the 1858 Perseids from a Rock Island train as it sped toward Chicago! Bradley established his own group of amateur meteor astronomers in Evanston Illinois. They monitored the Perseids and Leonids until about 1870.

1862: Benjamin V. Marsh (1818-1882), a Burlington New Jersey dry goods merchant, discovered the Geminid meteor shower, independently of, but simultaneously with Professor Alexander Catlin Twining (1801-1884) of the U.S., and Robert Philips Greg (1826-1906) and Alexander Stewart Herschel (1836-1907) of England. Marsh and his brother-in-law, Professor Samuel James Gummere (1811-1874), of Haverford College, were avid meteor observers in the late 19th century.

1863: Yale College astronomer and mathematician Hubert Anson Newton (1830-1896) predicted, after exhaustive historical research, that the Leonids would storm again in 1866. This prediction set in motion thorough Leonid watches in the U.S. and the U.K. during the years 1863-1870. Newton maintained a voluminous correspondence with many amateur meteor observers, like Marsh and Bradley. A young amateur, Frederick William Russell (1845-1915), began a meteor observation group of amateurs in Natick, Massachusetts. He sent the group's observations to professor Newton during the years 1861-1867.

1863: During the 1840s and 1850s in England, Professor (and Reverend) Baden Powell (1796-1860), collected and encouraged meteor observations. He was a founding member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). At the time, meteors were called "luminous meteors" to distinguish them from other atmospheric phenomena, like rain and lightning. He published meteor results in the BA's annual reports. When he died, the BA formed the Luminous Meteor Committee (LMC) to continue Powell's work. The LMC's membership changed somewhat over the period 1862-1880, but two of the stalwarts were Robert Philips Greg and Alexander Stewart Herschel. The LMC developed detailed instructions about how watchers were to make meteor observations. The committee urged meteor observers to hold a straightedge up to the sky when a meteor appeared, so that its path could be better recalled. The LMC also requested that observers transfer the meteor's path onto a gnomonic map so that meteor radiants could be located.

1866-1868: Leonid storms were seen in Europe and the U.S. The public became enthralled with meteors. Magazines like Scientific American prompted United States readers to watch for the Leonids. Publicity about the Leonids encouraged a new generation of amateur meteor watchers. Among them were William Frederick Denning (1848-1931) in England and Edwin Forrest Sawyer (1849-1937) in the U.S. Both began life-long observational careers.

1868: The LMC published and distributed gnomonic maps to English and foreign observers alike. Its goal was to stimulate thorough searches for meteor radiants. Alexander Herschel was successful in mentoring W.F. Denning, who proved to be a tireless radiant-finder. By 1899 Denning had evidence of almost 4,400 radiants and he was considered the world's foremost meteor observer. George Lyon Tupman (1838-1922), a Royal Marine officer, used the LMC maps during a Mediterranean cruise from 1869 to 1871. He discovered many southern radiants not easily seen from England. The LMC sent its materials to Benjamin V. Marsh, H.A.Newton, and A.C. Twining, and perhaps to other American observers. For instance, it is known that Herschel sent the LMC's 1862-1863 report to Marsh. The LMC's methods had great influence on American meteor observers in the late 19th century. H.A. Newton also developed and mailed star maps so that observers could plot meteors during the Leonid storms. 1869: Newton's analysis of the 1868 Leonids in AJS contains observations from amateur observers. Among them were Charles G. Boerner (1827-1900), a Weather Bureau observer in Indiana, and Winthrop Sargent Gilman (1839-1921) a New York banker. Gilman's younger brothers also contributed their data. In Washington, D.C, Daniel Horrigan contributed his Leonid counts. Horrigan was the U.S. Naval Observatory's night watchman and he watched meteors while the astronomers conducted their telescopic duties.

1872: When the Andromedid meteor storm occurred on November 27, Edwin Sawyer and a friend made detailed counts. They also kept a magnitude distribution of the Andromedids they saw. They were familiar with this reporting style because they had used it many times before for other watches. It was so natural to them that they used it spontaneously to record a meteor storm they had not anticipated.

1877: Sawyer began to write in Science Observer, the Boston Scientific Society's journal. His articles alerted readers to watch for annual showers and he published his and other's data in the Observer. At age 28, he volunteered to mentor new observers so they could acquire necessary observation skills. Sawyer's efforts were rewarded, because by the early 1880s, his contributors were distributed throughout most of the U.S. and included prominent observers like Edward Emerson Barnard (1857-1923) and Lewis Swift (1820-1913).

1879: Sawyer published a catalog of radiants he had discovered during 1877 and 1878.

1881: Sawyer published a second catalog in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. He had an active correspondence with W.F. Denning who included some of Sawyer's radiants in his extensive radiant listings.

1882: Sawyer contributed two articles to Sidereal Messenger in which he taught U.S. observers about meteors and how LMC methodology could be used to study them.

1885: The Andromedids stormed again. H.A. Newton described readers' results in AJS.

Late 1880s-1915: Sawyer published results of his Perseid and Leonid watches in Astronomical Journal. His correspondence with Denning continued.

1893-1894: Denning published a series of articles in Popular Astronomy. He described each major annual shower, and taught the LMC methodology to U.S. observers.

1899: Professionals, amateurs, and the public were all on alert to witness the forecast Leonid storm. Popular Astronomy published sky maps so that readers could plot meteors they saw. Wealthy amateurs purchased large aperture cameras to record Leonids during the storm. Fifteen-year-old Charles Pollard Olivier (1884-1975) assisted the McCormick Observatory's astronomers while they photographed the Leonids. Unfortunately, everyone was frustrated by the Leonids' failure to storm. The public was bitterly disappointed. As a result, the public became disenchanted with meteors for the next thirty years. 1904: Charles Olivier, then a junior at the University of Virginia, became skeptical about Denning's claims for the existence of "stationary radiants." Denning claimed that these meteor radiants did not move against the background sky, and lasted for weeks or months. Disproving these radiants' existence became Olivier's topic for a doctoral dissertation, which he completed in 1911.

1911: Olivier, now a Ph.D astronomer, volunteered to lead the meteor section of an amateur-founded astronomy association, the Society for Practical Astronomy (SPA). Two years later, Olivier broke away from the SPA and founded the American Meteor Society (AMS). Dr. Olivier continued to lead the AMS until just before his death in 1975.

REFERENCES

Denning, W. (1893-1894) "Shooting stars, how to observe them and what they teach us" A series of articles. Popular Astronomy, 1, September 1893 to April 1894.

Eastman, J. (1890). "Progress of meteoric astronomy in America" Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington. Washington, D.C. 11, pp. 275-358.

Kronk, G. (1988) Meteor Showers. Enslow Publishers, Hillside, N.J., USA and Aldershot, Hants, UK. p. 246.

Littmann, M. (1998) The Heavens on Fire. The Great Leonid Meteor Storms. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. Chapter 1.

Newton, H. (1869) "Meteors of November 14th, 1868". American Journal of Science and Arts. Second series, 47, pp. 118-126 and 399-413, with two plates.

Olivier, C. (1967) "History of the Leander McCormick Observatory circa 1883 to 1928." Publications of the Leander McCormick Observatory 11, Part XXVI, pp. 203-209

Olmsted, D. (1838) "On the Meteoric Shower of November, 1837" American Journal of Science and Arts. First series, 33, 379-393.

Payne, W. (1899) "The Leonids of November, 1899" Popular Astronomy, 7, pp. 527

Taibi, R. (2004) "Edwin Forrest Sawyer" WGN, Journal of the International Meteor Society. 32, pp. 87-91.

Tupman, G. (1873) "Results of Observations of Shooting Stars, made in the Mediterranean in the Years 1869, 1870, 1871" Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 33, pp.298-317.

Last Modified: January 20, 2006