[meteorite-list] Meteor Crater Road Trip. New Meteorite Photos, and Hunting!

[Eric Wichman]

Wow!

That's all I can say about our trip this past Labor Day weekend Road 
Trip. I am so glad my girlfriend had the idea to get out of the house 
this weekend. She called me late Friday from work and said lets go to 
Vegas, I suggested we go to Grand Canyon and we were on the road at 
midnight. It just so happened that on the way there the Aurigids 
Meteor Shower was expected to be seen from the southwest United 
States where we just happened to be. Again, all I can say is Wow! I 
wrote a short article about the Aurigids Shower on my site and would 
love to share it with everyone. It was a beautiful experience. You 
can read the article I wrote on the shower here: http://www.meteoritewatch.com/

After seeing the Grand Canyon I suggested we go see Meteor Crater. 
After all it was only a few miles down the road. ;) I was amazed at 
how BIG it was. I have video and photos the crater and me being a 
complete dork. I even made a neat little panoramic photo: 
http://www.meteoritewatch.com/images/meteor-crater-800.jpg of the 
whole crater from rim to rim which I posted to my home page. You can 
use this photo on your web site if you want as long as you leave the 
credit to my site.

I bought some "tiny" meteorites for my collection and have posted 
them to the site here: 
http://www.meteoritewatch.com/meteorite-photos.htm Unfortunately one 
of them might not be a meteorite at all. I'll let you guys decide 
which one that is.

OUR FIRST METEORITE HUNT:
We traveled all over Arizona and we went on our first Meteorite Hunt 
in Franconia! Talk about HOT! Holy cow it was hot out there. It must 
have been 100+ in the shade and we went through a 6 pack of water 
within 2 hours. We had a blast out there in the desert looking for 
meteorites and I was amazed at how many magnetic rocks there were. It 
seemed like they were everywhere. I don't have a metal detector yet 
so I made myself a magnet stick. Every time I saw a dark or shiny or 
crusty rock I stuck the magnet over the rock and most would move 
slightly or I would feel the magnetic pull if the rock was buried in 
the ground. I have some "possibles" but I don't think any of them are 
meteorites. It doesn't really matter to me, I'm happy to get out 
there and hunt! I usually get photos of everywhere I go, so it's 
funny I didn't get any of Franconia. Next time I go I promise to get 
some and post them on the site!

Well, that's about all I can say after all that. You can view all the 
cool photos and videos I took from the trip on my site as I post them 
over the next few days.

Let me know what you think...

Happy Hunting!

Regards,
Eric Wichman
MeteoriteWatch.com
www.meteoritewatch.com
eric at meteoritewatch.com