[meteorite-list] Re: Berthoud hunt

[j.divelbiss at att.net]

Mike,

Thanx for sharing your day and good luck with future searches for more of this beauty.

John

-------------- Original message from Mikestockj at aol.com: -------------- 

> 
> Hi All 
> 
> Photos of the hunt http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteorfinder/album?.dir=/c72b 
> 
> Just wanted to fill everybody in on how today's hunt went. The obvious first 
> question to answer is did we find any and the answer is not really. We did 
> find a couple of fragments of in the pit which of course were turned over to the 
> land owners. 
> 
> Several of us including COMETS members Fred Hall, Fred Olsen, Larry Sloan and 
> myself met Jack Murphy and several of his volunteers from the Museum. When we 
> first arrived we were happy to see Scott Palo an assistant Professor in the 
> Dept. of Aerospace Engineering Sciences who is heading up the investigation 
> there as well. Also in attendance were the Land Owners John, Megan and their son 
> Casper Witesis. But of course the most exciting moment is when Scott showed us 
> the guest of honor. 
> 
> We set up a little viewing area on the picnic table outside their rustic 1910 
> built house. What a truly gorgeous place to view the meteorite, with the 
> Rocky Mtns in the background and a truly exceptional fall day in Colorado. 
> Immediately as Scott removed the meteorite I was glad I had my sunglasses on. 
> The 
> fusion crust is incredibly shiny. One is struck by its size as compared to its 
> weight. Looks like it should be 1.5 kg not just 960 grams. I second thought was 
> it looks just like a Millbillillie or Camel Donga with tan colored clay 
> instead of the Australian Red clay. 
> 
> While the mass is somewhat irregular in shape there are obvious flow line 
> easily visible from a distance. It also has a large piece about the size of half 
> an apple with some of the lightest secondary fusion crust I have ever seen. 
> Under a hand lens one can see that only the highest points of the fractured 
> surface were melted. Along this surface a roll over lip was created. This 
> obviously happened later in flight. 
> 
> Most perplexing to me is the smaller golf ball diameter chip off the 
> secondary fusion crusted area. This shows no signs of fusion crust but does 
> reveal the 
> interior. The interior is a light to white colored matrix filled with a 
> clearer crystalline material. 
> 
> One disappointment is the piece is filled with numerous cracks. If this piece 
> had hit harder surface it would have fractured into several pieces. The 
> surface it did hit was quite hard being a horse corral. 
> 
> Megan actually the saw meteorite in flight at about 25 feet before it hit 
> from a distance of 100 feet. She saw what she described as the ground move in 
> the 
> middle of the horse pen. All three of the family members were outside at the 
> time but John and Casper only heard the sound. They went over to find the 
> meteorite which took about 25 minutes to find and dig out. All that was exposed 
> was a small piece that I would guess was 25-30 grams. The rest was completely 
> buried. John looked over at his wife and said it was not a meteorite. She 
> quickly asked him if he saw any other rock that looked like that. He'll 
> probably 
> never live that one down. After trying to dig the piece out with their hands 
> they discovered it would not budge. Both John and Casper ran to get something to 
> dig it out. Casper quickly found a claw hammer. You might all be cringing 
> right now but John was going to get the shovel. This of course would have 
> completely destroyed the crater. In fact the lower half of the crater was 
> completely 
> in tact to the point that the piece could be easily placed back in the hole 
> with the correct orientation. Probably the coolest part of the pit is the bottom 
> as you can see straw imbedded in the bottom. 
> 
> The areas we walked were an adjoining property owned by another land owner. 
> Please note all of the land is privately owned so permission should be obtained 
> before hunting. We were quite fortunate to be joined by both John and Casper 
> at one time or another. In all 12 people joined in the search. One interesting 
> aspect of the hunt is the almost total absence of rocks. So you don't find 
> yourself bending over much to pick up rocks. It is also row after row of corn 
> that has mostly been harvested. So it was quite easy to follow a straight line. 
> Unfortunately later in the day the stubble for the corn stalks creates some 
> wicked shadows. 
> Something else I was struck by was the size of the their property. It is only 
> 1.5 acres while the property around theirs is 300-400 acres and 1000 acres 
> across the street. I guess you sometimes need to be lucky. 
> 
> As we were talking during the hunt we realized that at 1:33 PM it would be a 
> week since it fell. In fact Casper noted that 7 days ago it was still in 
> space. So at the appointed time we stopped to take a photo of our group with the 
> house in the back ground in order to observe it 7 days of life on the planet 
> earth. 
> 
> The next major hunt will be on Saturday. CU will have several astronomy 
> classes out to help search to properties in the area. I'll be there tomorrow. 
> Email 
> if you are interested in helping with the hunt. 
> 
> Wish us luck. 
> 
> 
> Mike Jensen IMCA 4264 
> Bill Jensen IMCA 2359 
> Jensen Meteorites 
> 16730 E Ada PL 
> Aurora, CO 80017-3137 
> 303-337-4361 
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