[meteorite-list] My first meteorite

From: Dave Harris <entropydave_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:55:40 2004
Message-ID: <007301c1951d$705392c0$849f0050_at_default>

Hi there,
My first meteorite was acquired at a mineral show in Brighton in Aug 2000.
I had never seen meteorites for sale before and I could not believe my eyes
when there was a stand with a lot of gray metallic lumps of fascinating
texture in front of me. The kids were acting up and my missus tugged them
away to allow me to check out this stall, manned by two Russian gentlemen
whose English appeared to be only marginally better than my Russian (which
is non-existent). I saw a piece, 55g in size which they wanted £50 - I
could not afford that and offered £30 - which they accepted. I didn't know
where it came from and I could not understand their English regrettably, but
they drew me a map which I retained and now know was the Sikhote Alin range
and I acquired a nice little regmaglypted SA which I am still really proud
of. Funny thing is that my brother in law is Georgian (and hence speaks
Russian) and because my mobile battery had run out I was not able to get him
to speak to these two Russian chaps to uncover the facts/location of this
meteorite. Jolly good job they drew me a map.
It was the checking out of this meteorite on the 'web that opened my eyes to
the availability and variety of meteorites - I remember emailing Rob Elliott
asking if he was UK based or not! I also purchased a 5g triangle of Gibeon
from another seller (Maurer) for £5 on that day which I have since given
away to an astrophysicist friend as a congratulatory prize for getting his
M.Sc.
....and then the floodgates opened! I have since then collected many lovely
and fascinating specimens courtesy of you list members and eBay!

I remember people's response when they saw my S-A; fascinated and had a
similar effect to those who see a planet thru a telescope for the first
time: a real "Oh Wow!" moment.

--
In gentle decay,
dave
http://www.meteorites.ic24.net/index.html
http://www.thc.u-net.com/davethc1.htm
"I have a proof that x^n+y^n=z^n never has integer solutions for n>2.
However, it won't fit into my signature file...."

Received on Fri 04 Jan 2002 07:43:40 AM PST