[meteorite-list] Meteorite 20 Questions - Answer and Share if youDare. :)

From: al mitt <almitt_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:39:29 -0400
Message-ID: <35A8E52FC326447DB1B420E0E247563E_at_StarmanPC>

Greetings,

This looks fun so here are my answers.

--AL Mitterling

> 1) When did you start collecting? (how long ago)

Officially 1986/7 but first purchase of meteoritic material was in 1966

> 2) What first interested you about meteorites?

Going to Meteor(ite) Crater in the 1960's and seeing their display as well
as going to the Field Museum in Chicago and looking at specimens.

> 3) What was your first meteorite purchase, and from whom?

Canyon Diablo from Meteor(ite) Crater

> 4) How many meteorites or localities do you currently have in your
> collection?
       Well over 350 unique locations.


> 5) If you had to know for insurance purposes, what do you value your
> entire collection at? - in dollars - ballpark figure OK, or just say
> "none of your business".

Can't comment on this.

> 6) What is your favorite meteorite and why?


I have many but one is a 7 gram full lunar slice. Growing up during the
Apollo era and seeing a lunar specimen brought back from the Moon, I always
hoping that some would come on the market and with the Lunar Meteorite finds
that dream came true and I have a number of nice Lunar Specimens now.


> 7) Have you ever found a meteorite in the field?


Several but no cold finds. I have hunted Holbrook with some success, Odessa
and Park Forest.


> 8) Did you ever get the deal of a lifetime on a meteorite? If so, what was
> it?


I've purchase a number of great lifetime specimens. One was a Camel Donga
600 gram whole.


> 9) Did you ever go through the ordeal of a lifetime to obtain a
> meteorite? If so, please explain.

Yes, but that is just dealing. Many of my Indiana specimens are just that,
including a full slice of Noblesville, Indiana a 20 gram, one if not the
only one of the full slices left. Same with my Lafayette, Indiana Martian
Specimen.

> 10) Have you ever consumed meteoritic material? (If so, how or under
> what circumstances?)


No, I think that is sort of silly, I have rescued some from that fate and
have sold them. Probably everyone eats microscopic material that settles
down on crops or gardens.

> 11) Does your spouse share your meteorite passion, is ambivalent
> towards it, or resents it?


She is reasonably interested in my collection pieces and often hangs around
when I am finishing specimens for others or myself that don't look good and
then likes to see the transformation after I am finished. She see my yearly
sales so doesn't complain. A few purchases have made her eyebrows rise a
little, especially the 5 figure ones.


> 12) Have you ever let a bill go unpaid or late to buy a meteorite?
Delayed payment but only a week or 10 days.


> 13) A perfectly oriented, fully crusted, baseball-sized, lunar
> meteorite crashes through your roof and lands in your lap while you
> are reading this. It's the most gorgeous aesthetically-superior
> specimen you have ever seen - like Lafayette, but better. It legally
> belongs to you. What do you do with it?


Keep it of course but share it with others. (I saw someone else say they
would cut it in half that is meteorite sac-religious!!!) I would permit a
core to be taken and studied for classification. I'd send it to Alan Rubin!
Wait........there is some noise.........ouch!!!#$%%_at_ a lunar just crashed
through my roof!!!! If you believe that I've got a bridge I'll sell you.


> 14) Statistics have caught up with someone. Anne Hodges will no
> longer be the only documented person to be struck by a falling
> meteorite. Assuming the next person struck could be anyone and you
> could pick that person, who would it be? (silly answers only, nothing
> mean or political)

The Mbale fall struck a boy in the strewn field (see Sky and Telescope)
Hummm.....anyone....there is a few people on the...........never mind.

> 15) You are awarded the honor of selecting one specimen to keep from
> any meteorite collection in the world. What would it be?

That's a hard one to answer but I think the Springwater that Nininger found
from ASU would be my first choice but I have many.

> 16) Have you ever sold or donated your entire collection, and then had
> to rebuild it?


No, but I donate specimens to various places and people like teachers. I
have brokered collections that collectors wanted to go to a museum.


> 17) Summarize what you think about tektites in one sentence.


Mysterious interesting differentiated glassy objects that are probably a
result of terrestrial impact.

> 18) Which do you prefer - thin sections, whole specimens, slices, or end
> cuts?


By thin sections are you referring to slides?? I collect whole specimens,
slices of same and if possible a thin section slide of same. (thank you
Bernd for getting me started. :-)


> 19) Do you collect meteor wrongs?

Yes, since I have many people send in items to me all the time, the ones I
don't send back or throw out on the big pile out back, I keep to show people
what various meteor wrongs look like.

> 20) Have you ever dropped a tiny crumb of a rare meteorite and lost it?

I have dropped many small crumbs and lost them as well as found some of them
again. I handle hundreds every year. Most specimens I handle are large and
not crumbs as I am not (much) of a crumb seller or collector. Most crumb
losses are from processing the larger pieces. I'll sell the ones that flake
off but don't crush items to sell them.

--AL Mitterling
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>Meteorite 20 Questions - Answer and Share if you Dare

> Mike Gilmer
Received on Thu 29 Jul 2010 09:39:29 AM PDT