(meteorobs) More adventures
stange
stange34 at sbcglobal.net
Tue Dec 2 02:54:43 EST 2008
An exciting story. Thankyou.
Larry
YCSentinel.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce McCurdy" <bmccurdy at telusplanet.net>
To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Cc: <rascals at lists.rasc.ca>; "Astronomy Discussion list"
<astro at mailman.srv.ualberta.ca>
Sent: 2008/12/01 23:04
Subject: (meteorobs) More adventures
> It's been an exciting and tiring couple of days since last I wrote my
> first report Friday night from the Marsden Hotel in rural Saskatchewan.
> I'm now home safe and sound after two expeditions into the field to hunt
> for meteorites.
>
> On Saturday morning Frank Florian and I continued our expedition as
> representatives of the Telus World of Science - Edmonton. We prowled the
> area by car, getting out to explore a few small ponds and examine various
> suspect rocks by the side of the road and in the ditches. Eventually we
> approached the farm where the original finds had been made. The farmer,
> Ian Mitchell, was hanging out at the entrance restricting access to just
> Dr. Hildebrand and his research crew from University of Calgary. He had
> met us the previous day during the media scrums when Frank had interviewed
> him on camera for a planned exhibit at TWoSE's Space Place gallery, and I
> had passed him an RASC IYA2009 calendar in recognition of his good will
> towards the scientific community. Our own good will was repaid
> immediately, as rather than turn us away Ian said he realized we were
> serious in our pursuit, and directed us towards a remote group of beaver
> ponds in a corner of his property well away from other searchers.
>
> We headed in that direction, took a wrong turn and spent quite a little
> time on dry land exploring a cart path and a stubble field, still without
> success. There were many "meteor-wrongs" including terrestrial rocks,
> clods of dirt, vegetative matter such as wood chips, and animal droppings.
> With all my experience observing meteors I reassured Frank that we needed
> to persist, and that our patience would be rewarded. I added hopefully,
> "We need a little one for you, a little one for me, and a big one for the
> science centre!" Little did I know that was exactly how things would
> unfold.
>
> Eventually we scrambled and slid down a steep and slippery embankment
> into the coulee where we located the beaver ponds. A preliminary scan
> turned up nothing, but on our second trip to the biggest pond Frank found
> a meteorite roughly 2-3 cm in all dimensions embedded in the ice. A few
> minutes later I found one of the same size -- what a thrill that was! A
> little while later I came across a somewhat larger specimen maybe twice as
> large that we had to chip free of the ice. Finally Frank found a very
> small meteorite of about 1 cubic cm.
>
> We were running out of light so scrambled back up the embankment with
> our finds safely wrapped and stored. We returned to Ian Mitchell, who
> recorded our finds for Dr. Hildebrand but as I had hoped, told us to keep
> the meteorites we had found. We promised to bring them first to Dr. Chris
> Herd at the University of Alberta (Frank delivered them today), and once
> Chris is done with them, to use them for display purposes at the science
> centre. I am hopeful but not assured of getting "my" first, smaller
> fragment to use in conjunction with school and public talks. I expect I'll
> be speaking frequently of the Lone Rock meteorites during IYA!
>
> Tired and happy from our successful expedition, Frank and I returned to
> Edmonton late Saturday, our meteorites, images, and memories safely in
> tow. But at 6 the next morning, I was right back on the road, this time
> accompanying Edmonton RASCals Alister Ling and Franklin Loehde who were
> keen to do their own search. Even though I no longer had the "in" of
> officially representing the science centre I thought my local knowledge of
> the people and the area might be of use.
>
> Alas, our ~six-hour search turned up nary a meteorite among the three
> of us. We explored the train tracks and some small ponds on public land
> which may have already been picked over or else they were outside the fall
> zone. As chance had it at mid-day we encountered Les Johnson and family;
> the discoverers of the large 13 kg meteorite had decided to return it to
> the land owner, Al Mitchell (brother of Ian). Les took us to the exact
> point where he had discovered the monster, and there was a ~10 cm deep
> indentation on the ground in which the meteorite fit perfectly. Les said
> he had actually found it just beside the hole; it had hit and bounced out.
> As it happened Al Mitchell was still in the area, as was Dr. Alan
> Hildebrand of U. of C., Dr. Martin Beech of the University of Regina, and
> the big meteorite itself.
>
> The door to private lands thus opened, Dr. Hildebrand could scarcely
> refuse our offer to help, and for the rest of the day we traipsed through
> parts of the A.Mitchell property, through grassland and cow pastures,
> areas of heavy brush and frozen marshes where a broken ankle was a misstep
> away. Franklin took a tumble at one point and I nearly fell a couple of
> times, but luckily no harm done. We tried to focus particularly on frozen
> ponds where meteorites will not survive the spring thaw. Our search was
> more exhausting than exhaustive ... I'm sure it would take a coordinated
> team of a hundred people a week to properly search the full extent of the
> fall area, some of which is completely unsearchable.
>
> One last thing: on Friday when the press scrum took place, I scouted
> around the area with my trusty 10x50 binnies and spotted a second small
> slough which when seen from a little further down the road had a very
> likely black suspect projecting out of it. It was in a fenced area, so I
> couldn't get close to it, but I told Ellen Milley (the grad student who
> made the original find) about my preliminary observation, and she
> undertook to check it out a.s.a.p. On Saturday the farmer confirmed that
> it had indeed been a meteorite and an interesting specimen at that; and
> yesterday Dr. Hildebrand told me it was an "oriented meteorite", which as
> he explained it doesn't tumble on the way in and therefore develops a
> distinctive cone-shaped melt pattern. Alister later told me the shape of
> the Apollo capsules (or was it the heat shields? this was on the ride
> home) was designed in part by the aerodynamic structures formed naturally
> by oriented meteorites. I keep telling people I'm a meteoricist, not a
> meteoriticist, but I'm learning! Unfortunately, I never did get to see
> this particular specimen ... yet. Maybe I can coax a picture from somebody
> on the research team at some point.
>
> Meanwhile, I will soon post a few pics of my own to a website Stephen
> Bedingfield is setting up for the purpose. I'll post a link in due course.
>
> Bruce
> *****
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