[meteorite-list] unique stuff?

From: Alexander Seidel <ase_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:46 2004
Message-ID: <3EA59609.E84DFC0E_at_planet-interkom.de>

I basically second Rafael´s thoughts except for the statement that
"...sometimes collecting just meteorites gets plain and boring". I
don´t see it like this. It´s ALWAYS a thrill to have a new specimen
come on board, be that a stone from an XYZ desert that I may have
choosen for some aesthetical reason (P.S. - admitted: I don´t have
many NWA stones in the collection) or something very rare and unusual,
with a story to tell.

To give an example: I both love the 770 g unclassified stone meteorite
from (probably) Algeria on my desk, as well as I will love my latest
aquisition: a small crusted piece of the Borodino fall of 1812. The
story behind the latter one is that a small stone of about 500 g was
seen to fall and then picked up by a Russian soldier just before the
famous Borodino battle of the Russians under Alexander I against
Napoleon Bonaparte took place. I was handed to his commander who kept
it for centuries in his own family before it finally arrived where it
should: at the Academy of Sciences. Now this stone, though being just
an ordinary chondrite and only a micromount sample for my collection,
has an interesting story to tell in space and time, BOTH before AND
after it´s arrival on earth, hasn´t it?

And - after all: it´s not only the meteorites "themselves". The great
thing with this hobby is that though it still is a relatively young
interdisciplinary science, you nowadays have a multitude of
information available about these cosmic messengers, even for the
layman. The deeper you dig into that, the higher the fascination is,
at least that´s my experience. So I would advice every novice
collector to NOT ONLY invest into meteorites, but ALSO into
"knowledge", e.g. good literature, or travels to meetings where you
can talk to other people, or museum visits and the like... Not to
forget field trips...:-)

Alex
Berlin/Germany


"Rafael B. Torres" wrote:
>
> Ive been collecting meteorites for more than a year, maybe 2...what Ive
> found is that sometimes collecting just meteorites gets plain and boring, so
> once in a while its interesting to buy a meteorite with a unique story or
> differente meteorites, I guess its just a human thing, we are attracted to
> "different" things...also when you show your meteorite to people, its
> interesting to say a story within, if not, people usually dont like just
> plain meteorites. When I show my collection people is interested in
> meteorites from Mars or meteorites killing xn--people-1gaaaaa...in my
> viewpoint I dont care buying meteorites unclassified from the Sahara or
> soĦĦ, after all they are meteorites and all of them have the same
> formationĦĦĦĦĦ....but whenever my budget allows me I buy rarer specimens,
> just to have different stuff from the bunch, just for the fact of telling a
> differnte story from the common onesĦ
>
> =0)
> Rafael B. Torres
> Space Collection 2001
> http://www.geocities.com/rafael_blando
>
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Received on Tue 22 Apr 2003 03:20:42 PM PDT