88 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 60 



and Mechanic Arts, Dr. McCrosky began experiments with artificial 

 meteors. Plans include the injection into the atmosphere, at meteoric 

 velocities, of bodies of sufficient and known size to reproduce the 

 meteor phenomenon. The work should help calibrate the mass- 

 luminosity scale of natural meteors. 



Dr. McCrosky, in collaboration with Mrs. Annette Posen, completed 

 a program begun at Harvard College Observatory to determine the 

 distribution of meteoric material in the solar system, and its correla- 

 tion with comets. The analysis of the orbits of some 2,500 photo- 

 graphic meteors strongly suggested new correlations between the 

 orbits of comets in general and those of meteors in general. 



Satellite-tracking program. — The network of 12 satellite-tracking 

 camera stations, under the supervision of the Director, assisted by Jack 

 Slowey, astronomer, John Grady, operations officer, and J. Aubrey 

 Stinnett, engineer, supplied to the Cambridge headquarters some 

 13,000 photographs of the artificial satellites. Refined techniques 

 have made possible the better alignment of camera with satellite. 

 Using the Henize-Moore tracking tables, Mr. Grady developed tech- 

 niques by which the camera can track a satellite for 5,000 miles of 

 its passage, almost 30 minutes of continuous photography. In 

 August 1959, the camera at the station at Woomera, Australia, success- 

 fully photographed the Satellite 1959 8 2 (Explorer VI) at a distance 

 of 14,000 miles. 



The Moonwatch program continued imder the supervision of Leon 

 Campbell, Jr. Moonwatch teams have now transmitted more than 

 16,000 observations to Cambridge headquarters. These constitute 

 basic data for correcting ephemerides and for acquiring and re- 

 acquiring non-broadcasting satellites. During the year, Moonwatch 

 teams were able to relocate the "lost" Satellite 1958 Epsilon. Their 

 observations made valuable contributions to studies of the Russian 

 Sputnik III and the many pieces into which it disintegrated upon the 

 separation of the "chamber" from the rocket assembly. Moonwatch 

 now comprises 137 teams in various parts of the world. 



Under the supervision of Dr. Karoly Lassovszky, the Photo- 

 reduction Center in Cambridge processed the 13,000 films received 

 from the tracking stations; 8,705 contained images suitable for pre- 

 liminary field determinations of satellite position, and of these some 

 3,700 images were found suitable for precise measurement and 

 analysis. 



Under the supervision of Dr. Whitney, tlie Research and Analysis 

 Division in Cambridge continued to derive precise orbits from optical 

 and radio data. The Differential Orbit Improvement progi-am de- 

 vised by Dr. George Veis proved highly valuable for this work. 



