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Wow... Thanks for the welcome guys..!

Well, what can I say? THANK YOU would be a good start! You have made me feel
VERY welcome to The List... I appreciate it, thanks, and I'm really looking
forward to following the discussions, learning more about meteorites, and
becoming part of your community... :-)

I have to admit that I'm not too up on the science side of meteoritics, I
started collecting simply because I wanted to own one for myself after gazing
longingly at them for years while wandering around museums, and I guess
because I figured they'd be useful props for my school talks and evening
classes. Like most people I bought a Canyon Diablo specimen first, followed
quickly by a Sikhote Alin piece. These are my most popular pieces in schools,
the CD because the kids can actually see a slide of the impact crater and then
hold a piece of the "culprit", and the SA because of its wonderful sharp and
jagged edges (it's also polished, so looks much more metallic than the CD
piece). My now-famous Blue Box holds those and a couple of Gibeon specimens,
my treasured little Zagami fragments, some disc and teardrop shaped black
tektites and a beautiful, transparent green Moldavite with the most striking
flow markings on its surface. I also have a small Holbrook stone, and used to
have a piece of Allende... but I gave it to someone in a grand - and
ultimately futile - romantic gesture... sigh... long story, please, don't
ask...  !!!

I am a huge supporter of space education in schools, and I have found one of
the most immediate ways to "turn kids on" to astronomy is to give a
presentation all about meteors and meteorites and then let them actually hold
some for themselves, and I urge any of you who haven't already done this to
give it a try, you'll come out of the school completely re-energised, I
promise you. Surprisingly, when it comes to meteorites I've found teachers to
be the most amazed and worst informed... I've lost count of how many teachers
have politely declined to hold one of the meteorites, jokingly asking "Is it
radioactive?" or "Is it still hot?" Ha ha ha ha.... sometimes I think I'm
lecturing to the teachers more than the kids, really. 

I'd like to end this posting with an invitation to any List members in the UK
who are free on Sat July 4th... we - that's the Cockermouth Astronomical
Society, of which I am Secretary - are having a special evening lecture on
that night, and our guest speaker will be meteorite expert Dr. Monica Grady
from the Natural History Museum, (I'm sure everyone reading this knows exactly
who she is!) and she'll be talking about martian meteorites. If anyone wants
more details, mail me directly and I'll be happy to send em on.

Take care everyone...

Stu