76 AX^TTAL REPORT SMITHSOlSnAN INSTITUTIOX, 196 2 



Dr. McCrosky's project of seeking recovery of meteorites as soon as 

 possible after their fall, to provide data on the intensity of cosmic-ray 

 intensity near the earth and throughout the orbit of the meteorite, 

 is approaching actual implementation. In the first such large-scale 

 use of automatic photography for the purpose, he will direct a net- 

 work of 16 camera stations in the Midwest which will record meteors 

 m flight and from analysis of the film indicate the probable site of 

 meteoritic landing. To this site, from headquarters in Lincoln, Nebr., 

 designated searchers will make their quick-recovery trips and forward 

 the material for analysis. Field testing of the cameras has been 

 carried out, and the first station is expected to begin photographing 

 in November, with hopes that the entire program may be in operation 

 by the summer of 1963. Results should greatly increase our present 

 Imowledge of the numbers, masses, and orbits of meteorites. Dr. 

 McCrosky is being assisted by Messrs. Tougas, Munn, and Wargo. 



Dr. Salah Hamid has found from his study of the selection eiTects 

 on the orbital elements of short-period photographic meteors that a 

 true distribution of the eccentricity and perihelion distance of the 

 interplanetary particles corresponds to previous observations, and 

 that any comparison between theoretical and observed distributions 

 must consider separately meteors meeting the earth at the ascending 

 node and those meeting it at the descending node. His examination 

 of the age of short-period photographic meteors, though employing a 

 different method, confirms the 10 *-year estimate of the director and 

 Dr. Luigi Jacchia. 



From his study of the Quadrantids meteor stream. Dr. Hamid con- 

 cludes that it originated from a comet captured by Jupiter 3,000 years 

 ago and that its inclination, owing to perturbations of the planet, 

 changed from 13° to 75°. Investigating the question of a possible 

 comimon origin of this stream with the apparently unrelated S-Aquarid 

 stream, he found that both stem from the same comet, but that their 

 differing approaches to Jupiter (and its perturbations) have markedly 

 affected their different duration, perihelion distance, and present po- 

 sition. This study should be useful for investigation of other meteor- 

 itic problems, such as the rest of the Aquarid stream complex and the 

 Toroidal groups. 



Dr. R. Southworth's project of observing faint meteors for data 

 basic to meteor studies has involved planning and supervising the 

 computations of the trajectory and the previous orbit around the sun 

 of meteors observed by the radar system of the Harvard Radio 

 Meteor Project near Havana, 111. His observations of fainter meteors 

 than have been previously made by this method show excellent results 

 in accuracy and homogeneity. He has progressed satisfactorily also 

 in his study of the dynamical history of meteor streams, a problem 



