[meteorite-list] Andi's Sikhote-Alins and a SA anecdote ;-)

From: bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Nov 3 17:34:35 2005
Message-ID: <DIIE.0000002D00003EFC_at_paulinet.de>

Andi wrote:

"a very thin piece of Sikhote I bought last week at the Munich Mineral show"

www.meteoritenhaus.de/img/SikhoteAlin.jpg

Beautiful, almost arrow-shaped piece. Sincere congrats! Yes, that seems to be
the same phenomenon. Judging from its real dimensions that you kindly added,
the "octahedral parting" should be about 14 mm and thus still within acceptable
limits for SA (9 ? 5 mm according to Buchwald). I guess even 20 mm is still
acceptable).

Andi also wrote:

"Here are two images from a perfect oriented Sikhote. Take a look at the back image,
looks like the metal is still molten and will fill the ground in a second. Also the
circle of flow lines is a look worth."

> www.meteoritenhaus.de/img/SikhoteAlin_orientedFront.jpg
> www.meteoritenhaus.de/img/SikhoteAlin_orientedBack.jpg

Not just *one* look ... another beautiful SA. It has a very conspicuous, aesthetic roll-over
lip, but, this oval something, maybe it was a troilite nodule, unfortunately (or fortunately)
didn't get the chance to be "rolled over" (Hmm, reminds me of "Roll Over Beethoven":-). It hit
ground zero before this crater-like oval with its beautiful outward-flowing wisps could be
erased.

Hey folks, are you now ready for an SA anecdote?

At the 1984 "Fachmesse f?r Amateurastronomen" (Amateur Astronomers' Science Fair)
in Laupheim (Southern Germany, Bavaria), the Russians had an oriented, beautifully
thumbprinted SA on display and a certain Mrs. Ludmila Antipowa of the Soviet Academy
of Sciences, told the interested astronomy buffs about the SA fall and the accompanying
phenomena.

Another Russian, a Mr. Alexej Pamjatnych, was throwing a suspicious eye on the SA
on display and on me because I kept lingering around that celestial beauty repeatedly.

Why? I wanted to hold it in my own hands - just one time - and literally feel it, and get
photographed holding it by my astronomy and teacher colleague J.K. who was there with me.

You should have seen the eyes of the Russians protruding from their eye sockets
when I "carefully" lifted the SA from its display case ... :-)

Oops, I almost forgot to tell you that it only weighed 70 kg !!! ;-))


Cheers,

Bernd
Received on Thu 03 Nov 2005 05:34:33 PM PST