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(meteorobs) AMS Centennial Activity (1898-1998)
** A Centennial Recognition **
Hello colleagues,
Below please find a listing of all of the annually reported meteor totals
for the American Meteor Society, from 1898 to 1998 -- a full century of
observing meteors. This listing will also be appearing in the 1998 AMS
Annual Report (under construction now). I offer my thanks to Jim Bedient
and Mark Davis for combing through their own personal archives of annual
reports in order to reconstruct this record. My thanks also go to Thomas
Williams (Rice University) for historical insight into the amateur meteor
community activity "flux."
I find it most interesting that we began this century looking for a Leonid
return, and now we end this century in the same fashion (hopefully with
better luck?). It is also quite evident how much the USA space program
influenced interest in space travel and astronomy in general -- the AMS is
not the only organization which reached peak membership and activity during
that time. The AMS has also received a great deal of promotional help from
a large variety of amateur organizations through the years, in addition to
such publications as Sky and Telescope Magazine. There have also been a
long line of unsung, but active observers and recruiters such as Mike
Morrow (Meteor Group Hawaii), whom I have to thank for my own membership.
We end this century in solid fashion, with 90 or so active observers across
North America and Hawaii, an active amateur staff, a new journal and WWW
domain, and several active research projects. Here's to another 100 years
of meteor science in North America!
Year(s) Meteors Comments
1898-1911 6,114 Leonid watch
1911-1914 2,837 AMS founded
1914-1918 24,560 WWI
1919-1925 8,045
1927 3,143
1928 3,794
1929 10,366
1930 13,560
1931 29,013
1932 58,328 Leonid watch
1933 61,989 Leonid watch
1934 37,628 Leonid watch
1935 16,494
1936 21,675
1937 22,997
1938 9,333
1939 10,742
1940 9,447
1941 6,495 WWII begins
1942 7,246
1943 6,594
1944 15,669
1945 17,087 WWII ends
1946 6,006
1947 11,584
1948 10,207
1949 7,740
1950 13,324
1951 12,839
1952 11,780
1953 12,664
1954 10,581
1955 8,257
1956 22,858
1957 13,653
1958 17,245
1959 6,975
1960 8,522
1961 23,751 NASA Mercury program - man in space
1962 19,363
1963 34,217 NASA Gemini program
1964 33,974
1965 31,744 Leonid watch
1966 53,284 Leonid watch
1967 37,511 Leonid watch
1968 27,651
1969 52,608 NASA Apollo program - man on moon
1970 29,639
1971 67,274
1972 90,721 Moon landings peak
1973 22,652
1974 38,473
1975 **
1976 20,166
1977 26,713
1978 26,572
1979 11,703
1980 **
1981 12,219
1982 8,045
1983 17,405
1984 5,842
1985 14,662 Comet Halley watch
1986 7,244
1987 11,709
1988 26,878
1989 7,269
1990 8,045
1991 10,270
1992 8,294
1993 17,543
1994 11,671
1995 13,936
1996 14,130
1997 12,973
1998 27,845 Leonid watch
Total: 1,455,273
** AMS Annual Reports were not located for these years: 1975 and 1980.
Note: Totals from 1975-1996 are self-reported from the observers for the
Annual Report. Some received observations may not be counted here.
Take care, all,
Jim
James Richardson
Tallahassee, Florida
richardson@digitalexp.com
Operations Manager / Radiometeor Project Coordinator
American Meteor Society (AMS)
http://www.amsmeteors.org
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