[meteorite-list] Re: Thuathe

From: Starbits_at_aol.com <Starbits_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:23:46 2004
Message-ID: <35D881E3.76ECA991.00848CE4_at_aol.com>

  I am finally getting a bit caught up. After being gone
9 days my kids felt they had more claim on my time than
the computer did. My wife was very gracious about being
left alone with the kids for 9 days. She suggested that
if I was headed back any time soon I should consider a
one way ticket ;-).

  It was a great trip, aside from the plane rides and
Mike and I trying to kill ourselves one day. The people
were very friendly and we never had a bit of trouble.
In fact when we stopped for a coke one time, I
accidently dropped some bills on the seat as I got out
and both our guides let me know I had dropped the money.
It was a pleasure working with these guys.
   Aside from the actual collection of the meteorites one
of the best times for me was at David Ambrose's house.
Mike and I arrived unannounced and knocked on the door.
When we told him were were interested in talking about
meteorites he agreed to talk to us for a few minutes.
We left 2 1/2 hours later after repeatedly declining to
stay for lunch.
   We got the whole story, what he heard and did right
after it fell. He collected data from students returning
 back to school from all over Lesotho to determine where
 meteorites might have landed. He missed by less than
10km based on verbal descriptions. He told how they
finally found the strewn field and the early collections.
   The data he collected was amazing. Not only weights
and locations, but who found the piece, who collected it
and who it was transfered to if it collector hadn't kept
it. How many faces (facets) each piece had, whether
they were broken faces or not. What the dimensions were
in mm and any interesting features about the piece or
where it was found. One of the pieces I was able to
acquire in trade with him was a 94 gram piece that was
found on a roof 3 months after the fall. You can see a
photo of the piece on my Thuathe page. Much more data
than on any other fall I have seen.
   Looking at the pieces he had put us on cloud 9.
The largest complete stone 2.3kg is an absolute wonder.
You can see a photo of it on Mike's adventure web page.
So far it is not for sale. Mike and I left with a few
pieces and copies of the campus newsletters Dr Ambrose
wrote. It was a very enjoyable couple hours.
  I still have some pieces of thuathe left. I just updated the web pages deleting all the sold material so everyone can see what is still available.

http://www.star-bits.com/thuathe.htm

Eric Olson
ELKK Meteorites
http://www.star-bits.com
Received on Thu 06 Mar 2003 06:31:30 PM PST