[meteorite-list] Why isnt documenting meteorites stressed enough?

From: Shawn Alan <photophlow_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:16:22 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <537280.3376.qm_at_web113604.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>

Hello List,

This has been a good topic and I can see the importance of people trying to document finds of meteorites. If that be taking a photo and remembering where you found it or explaining to your friends about the time you where in the mountains and you found a strange rock. Each individuals experience will be different and the knowledge that one might have in documentations of the coordinates will vary as well.

A good example, at work a co worker told me a story about when he was a young kid he would going off with some of his friends and look for meteorites. At the time I bet they had no clue what they looked like or even if they really did find them. At any rate by him sharing that story he was able to tell his experience with me when he was a kid collecting meteorites.

Now from a scientific stand point he did a big mistake and didn?t bust out his play school gps hand held devise from Toys R US and take the coordinates down. He knew no difference what to do, nor do most people that are novice to meteorite collecting, they just pick up the meteorite and have a great story to tell. But if anything the veterans of meteorite collecting might want to set a good example with people at large. However it's harder then excepted and I have a big question I would like to address about the Meteorite Men show.

First I need to say I enjoyed the show and I hope for season two, thank you Steve and Jeff. Also I can?t express the importance of shows that cover science and I think we need more shows like this format. At any rate I have seen only two episodes which were the first and the fifth episode twice. However the thing that got to me was that at not time during those two episodes did any one express the importance of documenting the coordinate of meteorites found during each episode. What was stress was the secrecy of each location and the amount the meteorites can cost on the open market.

This was further displayed in episode five where for 30 minutes you watched Steve, Jeff, and Sonny pick up meteorite fragments after meteorite fragments without stressing that in the field one should take the time to document the find and record the information. The only thing that I did see that got documented was on the screen how big their pocket books were getting from finding meteorites on the dry lake bed.

These actions could send wrong messages to people about how to go about hunting for meteorites that watched the show. If they see that the Meteorite Men are at these secret locations, this secrecy can perpetuates the lack of importance of documentation, they no better and are only doing what is seen on TV. I hope with future shows the documenting process will be stressed more on how this step furthers the progress of meteorite science.

Shawn Alan
Received on Sat 13 Mar 2010 01:16:22 AM PST