In 1995, we received 22 applications. Awards by our Grants Committee, totaling $15,090, were as follows (principal investigator indicated in parentheses):

1. Braeside Observatory (Robert E. Fried). $1,000 for the purchase of CCD image reduction software to be used in conjunction with its ongoing program, supported by a National Science Foundation grant, to study the relationship between mass transfer, binary evolution and the structure of accretion disks in cataclysmic variable stars.

2. Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago (Stephen R. Platt). $2,127 for the purchase of a Macintosh computer that will be used for the front end of a control system for the control of a new 2 m telescope at the South Pole, to be operated by the COBRA group, part of the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica, to map degree-scale anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, extending their studies to smaller, angular scales and providing a year-round platform for other millimeter and sub-millimeter projects that take advantage of the unique Polar observing conditions.

3. Appalachian State University (Daniel B. Caton). $820 for the acquisition of filters for an optical filter system that will permit an existing CCD camera to be used for astronomical photometry of eclipsing binaries and quasars. The CCD/filter system will allow high-quality standard differential photometry to faint limits, unobtainable with photo multiplier tube photometry, especially on nights of less than ideal transparency. The project is intended to extent the abilities of the most advanced telescope in the southeast U.S. and will support the type of monitoring programs that can operate most efficiently at university observatories.

4. University of Chicago (Walter J. Wild). $2,500 for the purchase of a CCD camera to be used with the Wave Front Control Experiment adaptive optics system at the Yerkes Observatory 41-inch telescope for ongoing research in adaptive optics performance and selected astronomical observations amenable to using the WCE. Knowledge gathered from use of the WCE is expected to be used in developing better wave front reconstructors intended to benefit the entire adaptive optics community and hence high-resolution astronomical imaging in general.

5. Planetary Science Institute (Frederick A. Ringwald). $1,293 for the purchase of a Digital Audio Tape reader to be used in the programs of the Planetary Science Institute.

6. Columbia University (Carole A. Haswell). $2,450 for the purchase of a CCD camera for the 45 cm cassegrain reflector at the Isle of Thorns, to extend the capabilities of the Center for Basement Astrophysics Network in multi-longitude studies of variable stars. The five-hour time difference between Britain and Maryland will improve the sampling of light curves and hence the accuracy with which periods may be determined.

7. Sweetbriar College (Scott D. Hyman). $2,500 for the upgrade of RAM and hard disk space on a DEC Alpha Station 200 used in a research program for high-resolution radio continuum mappage of three nearby spiral galaxies at 6 cm and 20 cm wavelengths, identify and analyze HII regions, super novae and super nova remnants within these galaxies, analyze the nuclei and large-scale properties of these galaxies, and use these results to improve understanding of the evolution of stars and galaxies.

8. University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. (J. Scott Shaw). $2,400 to automate the dome of the Observatory at Kitt Peak, Arizona of the Southeast Association for Research in Astronomy, a consortium of five universities, thus completing the entire automation of the Observatory and increasing telescope availability to the astronomers and graduate students of the SARA institutions.