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Hi from a "newbie"

Hi List,

Having just joined the list over the weekend I think I qualify as one of the
"newbies" referred to in a recent posting. I joined the list after coming
across it on the Sky & Telescope site in the hope of meeting people who share
my interest in and love of meteorites... and yes, after a couple of days of
following the Peekskill thing I've been tempted to run in terror, but I'm
sticking with it after reading a couple of other postings from others who
actually seem to - gasp! - *like* meteorites.. :-)

This may not be the way "things are done" on lists like this, but as I'm going
to hang around a while I'm gonna go ahead and introduce myself. I'm an amateur
astronomer and part-time author living in the UK (we had a BIG meteor shower
here last week, hundreds reported seeing it from London up to where I live,
which is just south of the Scottish border) with a small but adored meteorite
collection, but I USE mine by taking them in to schools and letting kids hold
them at the end of an illustrated lecture about the Solar System. It's a
helluva buzz showing a class a slide of Meteor Crater and then letting them
hold a piece of Canyon Diablo or my wonderful, sharp-edged Sikhote Alin
fragment... the look of amazement in their eyes as they realise that the dark,
metallic "thing" they're holding "came from space!!!!" is worth all the hard
work...

My prize specimen? Some tiny bits of Zagami in a little plastic bag, which
cost me next to nothing a couple of years ago, and, as a dedicated "Red" (and
any Kim Stanley Robinson fans out there will know what I mean by that!) mean
the world to me. Last December I managed to wrangle a tour around the private
specimens kept beneath the Natural History Museum, London, and was priviliged
to be able to actually peer down a microscope at a piece of ALH84001. Might
not mean much to any of you technical guys, but as someone who's spent the
best part of two decades looking at Mars through a telescope and wishing he
could go, it impressed the hell out of me... :-)

So, that's me. I put my hands up and admit to the charge of liking meteorites,
I'm fascinated by them and I enjoy sharing them with people. Can someone just
be honest and tell me, with all this arguing and accusing going on, is there a
place for someone like me here..? If not, I'll just go and show a class of 7
year olds my etched piece of Gibeon, and tell a wide-eyed little girl that
yes, it really *did* come from space, and yes, it really **would** look lovely
as a locket... :-))

Okay, I asked for it... take your best shots...

Stu
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