[meteorite-list] First meteorite
From: STUARTATK_at_aol.com <STUARTATK_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:55:40 2004 Message-ID: <e5.11bb6666.2968ba03_at_aol.com> --part1_e5.11bb6666.2968ba03_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Well, my first meteorite was a piece of "Old Faithful", Canyon Diablo - a roughly-triangular specimen which I bought thru the post off a Midlands dealer here in the UK... wish I could remember his name... As an amateur astronomer and just-starting-out kids author (only 1 book published then) I'd wanted a real meteorite of my own for ages, and having grown up with pics of Canyon Diablo that seemed to be the obvious one to go for. So, I saved and saved and then sent off, much to the bemusement of my then-wife. Her bemusement deepened when I opened the package, and almost reverently unwrapped the piece inside... and I guess, to her eyes, it *did* look just like "an old bit of rock" as she condemned it as being at the time, but to me it was like holding one of the Universe's own relics, you know? Having seen them in museums, and magazines and books, I was finally holding a real meteorite in my own hands... and it was mine. I owned a piece of "Out There"... don't think I stopped smiling, or looking at it, turning it over and over in my hands for days... My then-wife never "got it". You should have seen her face when I tried to assure her that the bits of dust sealed-up in a micro-mount box really *were* from Mars, and yes, they *were* worth what I had paid for them... Since then my piece of CD has covered many, many miles, and been held by literally thousands of hands. It's gone with me wherever I've travelled to teach astronomy to kids: to Scotland, to tiny schools in the mountains of the Highlands and on the shores of Hebridean islands; all over the north of England, into schools large and small; to Science Fairs, lectures and meetings. It's even travelled back to the US, to be used as a "show and tell" feature when I gave a presentation to a school in northern California. It's been handed around crowds at Skywatches and during eclipses, meteor showers and Comet Nights. And its travels are far from over: later this year it will be travelling with me to Italy, and at year's end will be heading south to Australia, to help me with a school talk I'm planning to give there before enjoying a total solar eclipse. I have others now, of course, a dozen or so, but my little piece of Canyon Diablo still remains special. Stu www.stuartatkinson.com www.newmars.com --part1_e5.11bb6666.2968ba03_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>Well, my first meteorite was a piece of "Old Faithful", Canyon Diablo - a roughly-triangular specimen which I bought thru the post off a Midlands dealer here in the UK... wish I could remember his name... As an amateur astronomer and just-starting-out kids author (only 1 book published then) I'd wanted a real meteorite of my own for ages, and having grown up with pics of Canyon Diablo that seemed to be the obvious one to go for. So, I saved and saved and then sent off, much to the bemusement of my then-wife. Her bemusement deepened when I opened the package, and almost reverently unwrapped the piece inside... and I guess, to her eyes, it *did* look just like "an old bit of rock" as she condemned it as being at the time, but to me it was like holding one of the Universe's own relics, you know? Having seen them in museums, and magazines and books, I was finally holding a real meteorite in my own hands... and it was mine. I owned a piece of "Out There"... don't thi nk I stopped smiling, or looking at it, turning it over and over in my hands for days... <BR> <BR>My then-wife never "got it". You should have seen her face when I tried to assure her that the bits of dust sealed-up in a micro-mount box really *were* from Mars, and yes, they *were* worth what I had paid for them... <BR> <BR>Since then my piece of CD has covered many, many miles, and been held by literally thousands of hands. It's gone with me wherever I've travelled to teach astronomy to kids: to Scotland, to tiny schools in the mountains of the Highlands and on the shores of Hebridean islands; all over the north of England, into schools large and small; to Science Fairs, lectures and meetings. It's even travelled back to the US, to be used as a "show and tell" feature when I gave a presentation to a school in northern California. It's been handed around crowds at Skywatches and during eclipses, meteor showers and Comet Nights. And its travels are far from over: later this year it will be travelling with me to Italy, and at year's end will be heading south to Australia, to help me with a school talk I'm planning to give there before enjoying a total solar eclipse. <BR> <BR>I have others now, of course, a dozen or so, but my little piece of Canyon Diablo still remains special. <BR> <BR>Stu <BR> <BR>www.stuartatkinson.com <BR>www.newmars.com</FONT></HTML> --part1_e5.11bb6666.2968ba03_boundary-- Received on Sat 05 Jan 2002 03:20:19 PM PST |
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