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By admin, September 12, 2009 5:49 pm

I recently got a good deal on some Tatahouine meteorites.  This meteorite is both a rare classification (Diogenite) and a witnessed fall, making it highly collectable!  It fell on June 27th, 1931 over Tunisia, where it exploded into thousands of fragments before reaching the surface.  These small fragments are green with an interesting texture and virtually no crust.  Because of this unusual appearance, this meteorite would have likely never been identified if it hadn’t been a witnessed fall.

Here’s a photo of the batch I recently acquired (click to enlarge):

I put several of these Tatahouine meteorites into my eBay store today, so take a look if you’re interested.

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By admin, August 30, 2009 2:30 am

The fall of the Ochansk meteorite

On August 30th, 1887, a shower of stones fell on the village of Tabory, near Ochansk in Russia.  It was the middle of the day, so many people were outside to witness the fireball.  With a total known weight of 500kg, it was Russia’s largest witnessed meteorite fall at the time.  It held that record for 60 years, until the fall of Sikhote-Alin in 1947.

Ochansk might not be as well known as Sikhote-Alin, but it is an interesting meteorite nonetheless.  It is a very fresh H4 chondrite with lots of metal.  It is somewhat friable, so pieces should be handled with care to prevent crumbling.  For this reason, many slices are left unpolished.

My meteorite collection has one small piece of Ochansk.  More photos of Ochansk meteorites can be seen here (text is in Russian).

I don’t have any Ochansk for sale at the moment, but pieces show up on eBay from time to time.  Market price for this one is $10-20/g, so small pieces are very affordable for collectors. Much of the Ochansk material available to collectors was acquired by meteorite dealer Michael Farmer from a Russian museum about 10 years ago. You can visit his Ochansk sale page here.

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By admin, August 29, 2009 3:36 pm

One of my favorite collection pieces is a 76.2g complete slice of Ghubara.  Today, I finally took a proper photo of it (click to enlarge):

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By admin, August 25, 2009 10:54 am

Occasionally, I like to search Twitter for meteorite or meteorites.  Last night, a bunch of people in Canada suddenly started talking about meteorites.  A large meteor was seen – also known as a fireball or bolide.

Those of us in the meteorite hobby know that when someone says they saw a meteorite fall “nearby”, it could mean almost anything – there is a common confusion between distance and angular distance.  Still, with this many witnesses, it’s certainly possible that something reached the ground last night.

Below, I’ve compiled some of the highlights from Twitter.  I’ve used ellipsis to indicate multiple tweets from the same user.

OTerry Just saw a massive firery meteorite fall in north york. I wonder where it landed. It was either really big or very close.

derekpurdy Saw an amazing meteor in the sky tonight it was lit up for a second or two. Bright Green/blue watched it break up, amazing. #Meteor #Ontario … it was something else! Never seen a meteor like that. Wow, all I can say is wow. (user is at 44.264135, -78.064328)

ChaiLatteAddict I think I just a meteor! It made a bang and it fell from the sky and it was blue-ish/green-ish. Please tell me how to confirm this! … @ptc555 I saw it east of the west part of Montreal, so it make sense we saw the same thing if you’re in Ont. Thank god you saw it too! … Meteor sighting in Canada. I’m thinking about going home to watch the news all night. I wanna know where it fell and how big it is! … I love the power of Twitter, we all saw something thinking we were crazy but we talk about it and it’s an amazing feeling.

markdelete i totally saw that possible meteor tonight in the sky. blue flash with red center. pretty crazy.

jsat2028 @argusrocks Hi, I saw it land! It was as high as a telephone pole when I saw it I was no more than 20 yards away. Report it, to who? … I could see the ripples from the heat it was blue, looked like a force field, and the head was a fireball.

mackaytaggart @kentboniface I work at a talkradio station in Toronto….we’re getting a lot of calls about the meteorite. Where were you when you saw it? … @MitchMirsky I work @ a Toronto radio station. Getting lots of calls from listeners who reported seeing it. May have landed in Barrie ON.

kentboniface Just saw a meteorite large enough to light up the entire sky. Looked like lightning, but not a cloud in the sky.

MitchMirsky Driving home tonite, we saw a meteorite land about 300 yards away.

ellehether saw the most breathtaking meteor tonight! blue, green and orange! it was hugeeee!

ptc555 @colorsounds you saw the meteorite in rochester? i saw it in toronto! … @mackaytaggart i saw the meteorite from Etobicoke (royal york and eglinton). i was looking north.

colorsounds Falling meteorite in #roc, burned green, about 8:50pm, very big and bright!

LouisSabourin @argusrocks I saw at about 9 pm a meteorite: very impressive from Gatineau Qc was looking south-west: Ottawa, maybe

M_A_R_A #meteor saw a giant bal of fire at St. Clair & Ossington….it was awesome!

DGConroy Saw the meteor come across at Yonge and Eg… looked very close! (user is at 43.646557, -79.388714)

itemtrader I just the the meteor to ! thought i was crazy – it was bright

craigebrown I too saw a meteor flash across the sky. Very quick, very bright.

vdiddy1103 I just saw a shooting star…or a comet…or a meteor. I wish Astronomy wasn’t boring as f—, maybe I would have learned something.

sarahhp89 May Have Just Seen Some Sort Of Meteor Flash :0 Stoked!

fadersmusic Decided to go investigate am old haunted hotel called the regal constellation and witnessed a very impressive meteor fireball in the skies

ChrisDawe Holy poo. Just saw what had to be a meteor burning up over Toronto! Anyone else see it?

CopySix Just saw a small meteorite (shooting star) come down from my Barrie backyard – so close you could actually ‘hear’ it.

nevdawg @ChaiLatteAddict I saw it from Milton, just south of Toronto. Pretty incredible.

BenTFleming holy s—, I just saw a meteor crash.

memories_music Just saw a meteorite!!!

dvasmusique holy shit comet in toronto! #toronto … yeah i saw it … spectacular … i was on my way to District 9 and i saw it over my apt. building on queen near bellwoods

So, will anything be found?  It couldn’t hurt to look!  If anyone has more information about this sighting, please contact me.  If anything is found, I’m going to call this “the Twitter meteorite”.

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By admin, August 21, 2009 12:11 am

Lately I’ve noticed several suspected meteorites getting attention in the press.  The story usually goes like this – someone finds a funny looking rock, somebody tells them it must be a meteorite, and they go to the local newspaper or TV station.

Of course, thanks to the internet, there’s no such thing as a “local” newspaper anymore.  The stories are instantly posted online, giving meteorite collectors around the world their first glimpse of these suspected meteorites.  And, of course, we see that they aren’t meteorites at all.

Here are three recent examples:

• July 29th, 2009:  Suspected Meteorite in Whiteford, PA, USA
• August 12th, 2009:  Suspected Meteorite in Spokane Valley, WA, USA
• August 20th, 2009:  Suspected Meteorite in Barnstable, England

Now, I don’t blame people for mistaking Earth rocks for meteorites.  It’s understandable.  What I don’t understand is why newspapers and TV stations give attention to these stories.  If a confirmed meteorite were found, that would certainly be newsworthy.  On the other hand, if there is a funny looking rock that nobody has analyzed, then why jump to conclusions?  If the rock hasn’t been looked at by someone who knows meteorites, then why is it a news story at all?

Of the three news stories I linked to above, the first one is the most forgivable – it took place in an area where a meteorite is believed to have fallen last month.  The second article is skeptical, which is a step in the right direction.  The third article, though, is the worst offender.  There is no mention of anyone with experience taking a look at the rock, but it is confidently referred to as a “meteorite” nonetheless (not even a “suspected meteorite”!).  The newspaper then makes several references to the recent Perseid meteor shower, as if it somehow supports their claim.  Someone should tell them that meteorites don’t come from annual meteor showers.

To my eye, none of these rocks look anything like a meteorite.  Of course, anything is possible – perhaps each of these finds is a brand new classification, never seen before by collectors.  I would be happy to be proven wrong and have one of these turn out to be the real deal!  But until then, it’s just not news in my opinion.  (Of course, I realize the irony in drawing attention to these stories that I say aren’t newsworthy.)

One last thing: in the “Resources” section of this site, I recently added a page about what to do if you think you’ve found a meteorite.  I left out the part about calling your local news station.

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By admin, August 15, 2009 2:09 pm

I finally got around to adding my meteorite collection to the IMCA Encyclopedia of Meteorites today.  You can view my collection page here.  Of course, I still have my own collection page on this website.  So I guess you can see my meteorite collection in two different formats now.

The Encyclopedia of Meteorites site has shown me a couple of interesting stats.  Apparently, 21% of my meteorites are witnessed falls and 79% are finds.  That’s a much higher percentage of falls than I expected, because I’ve never really gone out of my way to collect falls.  I have a few of the classic falls, of course – like Sikhote-Alin, Allende, etc.  I also have some recent falls, including Tamdakht and Ash Creek.  I guess those pieces really add up.

Another piece of info I learned today is that my collection is 75% stony, 11% iron, 8% stony-iron, and 6% unknown.  Those “unknown” types are provisional NWAs – all of which are stony meteorites.  These numbers are about what I would expect.  I’d like to get a few more irons, including Miles, Toluca, and Chinga.  In the meantime, I have two other irons on the way: Dronino and Lanton.

If you have a meteorite collection and you haven’t been to the Encyclopedia of Meteorites lately, give it a try.

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By admin, August 11, 2009 10:48 pm

I added this big set of meteorites to my eBay store tonight.  It includes small pieces of 30 different meteorites from around the world.  This is one of the most impressive items I’ve ever had for sale!

If you’re interested, click here to go to this meteorite set in my store.

Either way, here are some photos of it to check out:

 

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By admin, August 10, 2009 4:16 pm

I just added two new features to the site: a meteorite glossary and a meteorite classification tree.  These two features, along with my meteorite links page, now comprise the “Resources” area of the site.

There are already other places on the internet to find definitions of meteorites terms.  For example, David Darling has a good Internet Encylopedia of Science.  Still, I wanted to make something of my own – something that would include meteorite slang as well as the usual “textbook” terms.  If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.  I think this could be a could tool for beginners who might be confused or intimidated by some of the words we use in this hobby.

The meteorite classification tree has also been done before online, in a few different ways.  Again, I wanted to put my own spin on it.  By making it an interactive collapsible list, I tried to make it easy to navigate and understand.  I included 1-3 popular examples for each classification, which I think makes it more fun and interesting.

Besides these two pages, I also I have a couple of other ideas for the “Resources” area.  My hope is to turn this site into a place where people can learn a little about meteorites… oh, and maybe buy some meteorites, too.

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By admin, August 9, 2009 7:26 pm

I just added 24 more items to my eBay store, including this 42.40g Sikhote-Alin meteorite.

I really like this one.  It has some of the usual thumb prints that Sikhote-Alin is known for, but it also has some warped, squished looking areas.  Take a look at the 3rd image to see what I mean.  It almost looks like some typical-sized thumb prints were squished together into smaller versions of themselves.

 

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By admin, August 5, 2009 7:59 pm

While looking for the latest meteorite news today, I noticed an article from the Whitecourt Star titled “Digging For Meteorites”.  Apparently, the University of Alberta set up a meteorite hunt last week for the general public.  Notice this quote from the article:

Based on the premise that the best way to protect a provincial treasure is to educate the public, Herd and Kafman invited up to 20 volunteers to join them at the site and dig for meteorites.

What a great idea!  I wish more universities had this kind of interest in meteorites.  The University of Alberta even has an informative website about the Whitecourt crater.

I’ve never seen pieces of this meteorite for sale before – probably because the crater is a protected area.  Still, there’s a good amount of information online about it.  Naturally, I decided to check the Meteoritical Bulletin first:

Whitecourt

Alberta, Canada
Find: 1 July 1 2007
Iron, medium octahedrite (IIIAB)

History: Four small fragments were found buried adjacent to a circular depression by two local residents using a metal detector. The circular depression was subsequently confirmed as a 36 m diameter Late Holocene impact crater based on morphology, identification of impact ejecta and crater fill, and presence of impact melt (C. Herd and D. Froese, University of Alberta), and further fragments were recovered.

Physical characteristics: The meteorite consists of 74 samples with a total mass of 5372 g. The samples were found buried up to 25 cm and have a red-brown exterior.

Sounds good to me. The article says Dr. Herd is working on setting up a public display of some of the meteorites they’ve been finding.  I’m glad someone like this is on the case!  This could wind up being a really good tool for meteorite outreach/education.