[meteorite-list] What a lunar thrill - again ! :-)

[bernd.pauli at paulinet.de]

Hello List,

Those fortunate enough to own a piece or a slice of M. Farmer's
Dhofar 1180 LUN-A will have noticed that it is one of the darkest
lunars in our collections.

I was amazed to detect numerous "glassy-looking" clasts when
I wandered over it with my Russian MBS-10 stereo microscope.

One of these may be epoxy resin (Mike ...?) because it is crystal-
clear like the melt pockets you find in some of the NWA 482 lunars.

But several others are a pleasing tan color - translucent like smoky
quartz crystals that were not exposed to radioactive radiation too long.

So, maybe, Dhofar 1180 may turn out to be a heavily shocked lunar
meteorite and I was looking at higly maskelynitized plagioclase
crystals or some other shocked minerals and the overall dark matrix
may be due to shock darkening.

How I would love to know which cratering / impact event on "radiant
Diana*," "the goddess of love and lunacy*" produced this and other
lunar beauties!

* Paul Auster: Moon Palace

Best wishes,

Bernd