[meteorite-list] Fwd: First Alabama stone found!

From: Marc Fries <chief_scientist_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2012 08:13:11 -0800
Message-ID: <64E4DC73-6921-4434-BF3A-3B5750050FEA_at_galacticanalytics.com>

Hi List,

   ( Marc Fries was kind enough to host/post this to the list for me
since I can't send photos thru the List) Please see the exciting news
below, as well as a couple of photos of the stone.

   *************************************************************

   I am happy to have the pleasure of being able to announce that the
first stone from the new Alabama fall last Tuesday, Oct 30th has been
found!

   A big CONGRATS to the team members Stephen Beck, Tommy Brown and
Jerry Hinkle on their beautiful find late yesterday evening (11-3-12),
almost exactly 4 days to the hour from the time of the fall. Great
job, guys!

   No exact weight available yet, but best guess is near 60grams.
Appears to be an OC, possibly brecciated. This particular specimen has
a prominent metal vein on one corner.

   Also a big THANK YOU to Marc Fries, Jeff Fries, Rob Matson, and
Jake Schaefer for their fantastic work with the radar! Most List
members probably know that Jerry and I have been meteorite-hunting
partners for over 20 years now. We had just subscribed to Galactic
Analytics on Friday, 11-2. I had to work this weekend and couldn't
join him (my wife said I should have asked someone to work for me- she
was right... again ;-) on this hunt, but Jerry headed to Alabama Sat.
morning with the maps, and by the end of the day, a meteorite was in
hand! Now if that isn't a great testimony to the value of the GA radar
map service, I don't know what would be. Great job by you guys, too!

   Now for a little back ground on the other members of the team and
the story of how these guys got together to find a "find-of-a-lifetime".

   Stephen Beck is a good friend of mine who has several very
interesting hobbies and a very successful practice, but meteorite
hunting is something he had never actually got to do. Ironically, I
had told him less than two weeks ago that the next time I went on a
hunt I would definitely invite him. How were we to know that it would
only be a few days before HE would be contacting me about his local
news station there in AL describing a tremendous fireball that
evening, complete with sonic booms. Not 5 minutes later, another
friend sent me an email saying that Mike (Farmer) had just called him
from Germany saying he had just learned of the fall and that there
were almost certainly stones on the ground there. I told Jerry about
it and since he's living the good life now and had plenty of time to
go, he started making plans to go Sat morning. We arranged for him to
meet up with Stephen and his
friend, Tommy Brown, who knew the area well. When they found the
stone, they sent me a photo and I forwarded it to Mike. No doubt about
it!

(see the photos of the stone that Marc is hosting for us)


   Best wishes,
   Robert Woolard

------

Howdy, all - Marc Fries writing now...

I have started up a gallery of meteorite photos on the Galactic
Analytics web page! I want to fill this gallery with pictures of
meteorites that we help you recover. I need to figure out how to add
labels with the meteorites' names and the names of the finder/owner,
but here it is in a simple state for now. This page will remain open
to the public and will not need a subscription to view.

Pictures are available here:

http://www.galacticanalytics.com/meteorite-pictures/

Congratulations to Stephen Beck, Tommy Brown, Jerry Hinkle, and Robert
Woolard for making the FIRST find of this fall! We are calling this
meteorite Add001 for now, but we may change the name (but not the
number!) if the name submitted to the Nomenclature Committee is
different from "Addison".

Congratulations again!
Marc Fries, Rob Matson, Jake Schaefer and Jeff Fries
Galactic Analytics LLC
Received on Sun 04 Nov 2012 11:13:11 AM PST