Discovery and orbital characterization of near-Earth asteroids

The fundamentals of photographic discovery are discussed, and the work at the Palomar Observatory is described including photographic discovery programs elsewhere. The Spacewatch development of CCD-scanning techniques is reviewed. Special searches for objects near the Earth are reported. The existence of four streams among both Earth-approaching asteroids and meteorite-dropping fireballs suggests that at certain times of the year an increase can be expected in both asteroid discoveries and meteoritic events.