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The American Meteor Society

Geneseo, NY
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SETI Team!

[AMS 90th Anniversary Button]

 
Welcome to the home of the American Meteor Society, Ltd., a non-profit scientific organization established to encourage and support the research activities of both amateur and professional astronomers who are interested in the fascinating field of Meteor Astronomy. Our affiliates observe, monitor, collect data on, study, and report on meteors, meteor showers, meteoric fireballs, and related meteoric phenomena.
[Image: A 1994 Perseid Fireball]

Selected Website Features


On any given night...

...in British Columbia, an observer will monitor his homemade meteor spectrograph, hoping to catch another rare spectrum of a meteor making its fiery plunge into the atmosphere. In Florida, another observer will operate his radio observatory, using home-brew computerized data acquisition equipment to catch the death cries of asteroidal sand grains and cometary balls of fluff blazing to glory at many miles per second. In New Jersey, in Ontario, in South Carolina, in California, in Hawaii, and elsewhere, observers armed with only the simplest of equipment -- their bare eyes, a good watch, and a tape recorder-- will marvel at the beauty of the dark night sky while recording the parameters of each of the 10 or 15 sporadic meteors they see each hour. On a major shower night they may be busy recording a hundred or more meteors per hour! In Puerto Rico, a professional astronomer will use the giant Arecibo radio telecope in a radar mode to explore the world of micrometeoroids, the dust left over from the creation of our solar system -- and perhaps other star systems.

Beyond their love of the night sky and meteor science, these diverse individuals have one thing in common: they are all affiliates of the American Meteor Society, Ltd.

Welcome to the web pages of the AMS. We are an organization of amateur and professional meteor scientists and observers founded in 1911, with a common goal of studying meteors: - bright fireballs, the annual meteor showers, and the random sporadic meteors that appear every night. It's an exciting field, where amateurs equipped only with their eyes, a watch, and a tape recorder can make valuable scientific observations.

Anyone, regardless of prior knowledge or skill, interested in observing meteors and advancing meteor science is welcome to become an affiliate of the AMS. We also welcome casual browsers just looking for information on meteor showers; please look through the many resources available on our site for you.

As we approach our 90th year of existence, we invite everyone to join us on our journey in exploring meteor science - the most exciting field in astronomy.


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Material on the AMS site © 2002 American Meteor Society, Ltd. All rights reserved.

Last Modified: October 10, 2003