[meteorite-list] I'm getting confused by the MB coordinates

From: Walter L. Newton <newtonw2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Aug 26 02:36:45 2006
Message-ID: <001a01c6c8d9$af2f5110$ed760818_at_walter>

Hi

Some of you may have remember being bored by my running dialog with the MB
and Jeff in reference to the actual find spot of a Colorado meteorite.

In the MB, the Apex Colorado meteorite has coordinates that puts the find
(1938) at about 4 miles north of the actual location. I know the actual
location because of the narrative in the MB, and Jack Murphy concurs. He
knows where it was found and it's not where the MB coordinates have it.

Now... a have a new girlfriend (yes, this is really going somewhere) and
Steffanie lives in Russell Gulch Colorado, which is an old mining town south
and above Central City Colorado. It's listed as a ghost town even though it
has about 35 folks living there.

Well, looking at the MB list of Colorado meteorites, low and behold, we have
a Russell Gulch meteorite, an iron, found in 1863.

But, if you check the coordinates with Google Earth, the find spot would be
right in Central City Colorado... about 4 miles north of Russell Gulch.

Do we see a pattern here. Steff is going to hook me up with an old timer
that lives in Russell Gulch, who knows about the find and has a good idea
where it was found.

My question is (I promised this was going somewhere)... was some of the
coordinates in the MB constructed from a different map datum. I vaguely
remember something about different datum sets used for lat. and long. I
don't really understand the details about this, but I know my simple GPS
unit has a whole list of datum sets that I can set my unit to.

Are the MB coordinates really right, but using a different "starting point"
then Google Earth.

Otherwise, I guess I'm going to go off on another tangent with the MB about
another find spot.

Maybe someone can point me to an online article that explains all this?

I know this is not as earth shattering as losing a whole planet, but it bugs
me none the less.

Stop me before it's too late. (did this make any sense?)

Walter L. Newton
Golden, Co
Received on Sat 26 Aug 2006 02:34:29 AM PDT