Takysie Lake – the Classic “Pseudometeorite” – Found by Harvey H
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Meteorite Times Magazine Contents Paul Harris Featured Articles Accretion Desk by Martin Horejsi Jim’s Fragments by Jim Tobin Bob’s Findings by Robert Verish Micro Visions by John Kashuba Norm’s Tektite Teasers by Norm Lehrman IMCA Insights by The IMCA Team Meteorite of the Month by Editor Tektite of the Month by Editor Terms Of Use Materials contained in and linked to from this website do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The Meteorite Exchange, Inc., nor those of any person connected therewith. In no event shall The Meteorite Exchange, Inc. be responsible for, nor liable for, exposure to any such material in any form by any person or persons, whether written, graphic, audio or otherwise, presented on this or by any other website, web page or other cyber location linked to from this website. The Meteorite Exchange, Inc. does not endorse, edit nor hold any copyright interest in any material found on any website, web page or other cyber location linked to from this website. The Meteorite Exchange, Inc. shall not be held liable for any misinformation by any author, dealer and or seller. In no event will The Meteorite Exchange, Inc. be liable for any damages, including any loss of profits, lost savings, or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, consequential, or other damages arising out of this service. © Copyright 2002–2016 The Meteorite Exchange, Inc. All rights reserved. No reproduction of copyrighted material is allowed by any means without prior written permission of the copyright owner. Meteorite Times Magazine Oriented Canyon Diablo Meteorite? I hope so. Martin Horejsi The irons and iron fragments from Canyon Diablo or Meteorite Crater, or Meteor Crater, or Barringer Crater, or Coon Mountain or any of several other names is a staple in every collection. From huge display pieces to micro mounts, Canyon Diablo, or CDs, are important representative of meteorite history, meteorite science, and meteorite collecting. So as a meteorite collector, I have many specimens of Canyon Diablo from near-microscopic metallic spheroids, to multi-kilo individuals. I have polished specimens, rusty fragments, and beautiful individuals with unique shapes and holes. But one that has peaked my interest lately is a 2.5kg individual that sure looks like it could be oriented. In a nutshell, its triangular with a bulged convex face on one side and a lightly concave face on the other side. I’ve yet to find any documented reports of oriented individuals of Canyon Diablo, but I have heard that many folks don’t think there are. In addition to looking at hundreds or more likely thousands of CD specimens, three other sources are my go-tos for info on Canyon Diablo. One is a 1972 article simply tiled “The Canyon Diablo Meteorite” by the Soviet scientist Gennady P. Vdovykin. Another source is Jim Tobin’s book (now in it’s third edition) titled Meteor Crater. Any my final go-to source is, of course, the 1972 edition of Handbook of iron meteorites, their history, distribution, composition, and structure by Vagn F. Buchwald. So in this installment of The Accretion Desk, I am presenting a series of pictures the highlight the shape of the individual I’m wondering about. Could this be an oriented Canyon Diablo? I’d like to think so, but please comment. Not that consensus will make it so, but I’m certainly curious about what other see in this individual. Meteorite Times Magazine Before and After Holbrook and Meteor Crater Trip James Tobin I am heading out to the Holbrook strewnfield in a few days. I missed the hundredth anniversary gathering/hunt and all the yearly ones since. Paul and I did get out there several years ago for a very successful two days of hunting. This year I am going to go to the yearly hunt. When I was working full time it was difficult to take off and to drive the roughly 1300 miles by myself to get to Holbrook and back home. Now that I am retired it is not as hard to go and this year I am excited to see the place again. Of all the places I have hunted meteorites Holbrook is one I have been quite successful at. I know that others have been much more successful but many of them live closer and can visit more often. I have been there on three trips and spent about four days total hunting. I have recovered just about 100 specimens. I have written about those trips before and won’t go over the material again. As I write this I have begun charging camera batteries and started getting my hunting stuff together. Some is still in the pack I used at Gold Basin last November. I won’t use that at Holbrook. I usually just carry a water bottle and my magnet stick at Holbrook. I keep my cellphone and GPS in my pockets. When I find a stone I lay the GPS next to it and take an image put it in a baggie with something written on the outside and move on. I am riding along with Richard Garcia on this trip. Richard and I have hunted together a few times before and it is always fun. It has been a while so I am looking forward to having the chance to catch up. I had just one request when we first planned going. I needed to stop at Meteor Crater to take some images for the new book I am writing. It is about the crater again but just a one year period in the history, so much narrower than the historical books I have written before. Richard said he was planning on stopping himself so that was perfect. I could not find my travel tripod. It is collapsible and reasonably sturdy. But after several hours of hunting everywhere I can not find it. So I ordered a new one. I really have never bought a modern tripod. I have some antiques made of wood that I have bought at swap meets but not an aluminum modern one. They have all come as part of camera packages or lenses offers. I decided that since my images are going to be extreme telephoto shots to get one that was pretty sturdy but still portable. I also did not want to break the bank on a tripod. I found a nice one on Amazon that was $100 off regular price and had great reviews for about $90. It also came apart to work as a monopole which is good as I can use the anti shake help sometimes. I have a wonderful 70-300 mm telephoto made by Tamron for my Canons. It is sharp as a tack and good for most everything including my astro imaging, but it was not going to get me across Meteor Crater or to places around the crater I wanted to shoot. The south road is pretty far from the crater slope. I did not think I could get permission to visit those locations in the short lead time I had for this trip so I needed to reach out with telephoto lenses the best I could. I have used mirror lenses before and am well acquainted with the drawbacks that they have. But for price, weight and size they are hard to beat if used with care. The ones on the market today are both good and poor. I did a lot of searching on the net, and reading reviews again. I found one by a manufacturer I have had lens from before. It was very reasonable in price and reported to give a very sharp image at both the 500 mm normal setup and with the 2x tele extender. The sample photos in one of the reviews were very good. I doubt that I will do more than just try the 2x setup. That would be 1000 mm of focal length and an OK field of view if it was a full frame sensor camera. But with my APS sensor and a crop factor of 1.6 it would give me the field of view of a 1600 mm lens. I think that may be too restricted for what I need. But we will see. I will play with it when it arrives and with the tripod. The biggest negative most people have with mirror lenses is the donut shaped out of focus highlights. Anything bright in foreground or behind the point of focus will be a blurry donut. It starts out being a cool effect when you first try a mirror lens but it can quickly become a much less attractive feature. Even an annoying feature at times. I am shooting across Meteor Crater and everything should be at or very near infinity focus in my images. I should have very little depth of field. So no out of focus areas to become donuts. When used this way the lens is very handy to get distant objects at big magnification. The resolution charts in the reviews seems to be good though not as good as a refracting telephoto lens of the same focal length costing 30 times as much or more. You often do get what you pay for but sometimes almost as good is good enough and far less expensive. I am hoping that is what I will find with this mirror lens. I am taking my cellphone macro camera so I can image my Holbrook finds at night in the hotel room. I am taking a scale with me so I can weigh them.