The American Meteor Society, Ltd. is incorporated as a Not-For-Profit Corporation in the State of New York. Quoting from our certificate of incorporation, our purposes are:
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.
Since the AMS is a scientific society with limited funding and largely dependent on volunteer services, there are a number of things we cannot do or provide. We are limited by our incorporation to activities related to meteoric astronomy and have no information to distribute on stars, planets, galaxies, etc. These may be obtained from one of the many excellent books available on astronomy, or by contacting a local planetarium or astronomical society. Our observing materials are available mainly to persons we have good reason to believe will put them to consistent and scientific use. Certain documents are available for sale, contact us for a current list.
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.
You saw a fireball? Something bright falling from the sky? Fill a report now! Your report is important, it alerts us to potentially scientifically significant events that occur, and contributes to the general database of knowledge about meteors. It takes only few minutes to report a fireball - that's one small step for a man, but it could be one giant leap for mankind!