[meteorite-list] Partial September Team LunarRock Trip Report

From: Raremeteorites <raremeteorites_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2017 16:31:45 -0800
Message-ID: <5BD7B20F55A0490E92ADA8B1E5F1D077_at_HPDESKTOP>

Dear List Members,

I finally had a few minutes to spare between real estate dealings so thought
I would provide a snapshot into last September's Team LunarRock expedition.
The 2,200 mile plus trip is too long to share in one or two posts so I will
break the trip report down into manageable posts. I already covered the
drone crash at Lunar Crater in a previous post so will go back a few days,
before the crash.

Team member, Mark "Action" Jackson, who was responsible for piloting the
drone, during the trip, solved the local mystery of the "Giant Crystal" in a
vug a few days before we hit the road. I have been hiking the Christmas
Tree Pass area, a few miles from my house, for years looking at petroglyphs,
exploring thousands of caves and looking for meteorites. On one of these
hikes, I spotted what looked like a giant terminated crystal in a vug with a
set of binoculars. It was near impossible to get to since it was about 500
feet above the canyon floor and I have not practiced any sort of serious
rock-climbing since my 30s. I showed it to Mark "Action" Jackson on a
previous trip and he decided to solve the mystery once and for all, on the
September Team LunarRock hunt.

Mark went back to the spot and found the vug again. The high altitude at
the pass, thermals and the wind made for a very tricky flight but he managed
to get within a few feet of the object and capture some images. We studied
the video and some still shots carefully later on and finally figured out
exactly what we were looking at.

Nine minute flight video of "Giant Crystal in Vug" at Christmas Tree Pass:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNXWzJfPKg8&feature=em-share_video_user

If you cannot figure out exactly what the object is, I will post the answer
at a latter time.

Short preflight before trip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW-OpQpkRGg

Next time, I will disclose the surprising answer to the Mystery of the
"Curious Iron Rocks" that miners in Northern Nevada told us about in 2015.

Have Fun,

Adam Hupe
Team LunarRock
Received on Mon 23 Jan 2017 07:31:45 PM PST