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Latest News

Wow, a huge event in Russia!!

Early this morning a massive fireball was seen streaking across the sky in western Siberia. followed by a sonic boom that reportadly damaged buidlings across a large area of the territory. Early reports describe over 900 people being injured (mostly by glass and window debris). This looks like a big one! Watch this spectacular dashboard camera footage:

• >>Checkout this reaction to the showckwave
• >>Pieces in the ice? (Russian site)
• >>RT article
• >>NY Times article
• >>Russian article
• >>Guardian updates
• >>Growing Wikipedia page

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NWA 7034 is one old meteorite!

Check out the latest on this cool old stone on its Wikipedia page.

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List Members Find 300kg Morasko

Congratulations to Lukas Smula and team make an exciting find: ArtMet website article

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Another California Fall!

• >>Bob Verish interviewed!
• >>Meteor lights up sky across California
• >>Meteor streaks across the sky; Crashes into Bay Area
• >>Spectacular Meteor Sparks Fireball Over California
• >>CA Fireball Meteor 17OCT2012

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Robert Burnham Jr.

Here's a very interesting article by/about Robert Burnham Jr: Robert Burnham Jr.'s 1983 Testament: An Astronomer-Recluse Inscribes His Universe. This astronomer who published one of the most unusual and loved set of books (Burnham's Celestial Handbook: An Observer's Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System) lived his final years in obscurity in San Diego, CA. I ran the Science Store at the RH Fleet Science Center at the time and wonder if I may have ever unknowingly chatted with him about astronomy and meteorites.

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New California Fall - a CM?

A bright daytime fireball was seen traveling in the skies over central California and Nevada on Sunday morning around 8am Pacific Time. Based on many sightings, photographs, and radar data, a proposed fall area was established (east of Sacramento, CA near Coloma) and the recovery efforts began. The first find was reported to the Meteorite Mailing List on 4/24 at 11:00am Pacific Time (Recovery by Robert Ward) and looks to be a CM carbonaceous chondrite! An additional find was reported to this list later in the day (see link below). This is an exciting fall!

• >>SETI's Official Fall page - Seti.org
• >>Unofficial Sutter's Mill Find Page - Galactic Stone
• 5/14 Article - Space Daily
• 5/12 Meteorites Spark "Gold Rush" - MSNBS
• 5/04 Fall Map - Sacramento Bee
• 5/03 Meteor Zombies - BBC
• 4/30 Great Article and Pictures - LA Times
• 4/27 Another Great Image - Southest Missourian
• 4/27 Incredible Picture of the Sutter's Mill CM2 - Rocks From Space
• 4/27 Another Possible Find - Auburn, CA
• 4/26 Article - CNN Blog
• 4/26 Article - Universe Today
• 4/25 Blog Article - Cosmic Diary
• 4/25 Photos of a reported find - http://briencook.com/lotus/
• 4/25 Good Story and Photos - http://www.astrobob.areavoices.com
• 4/24 NASA News Report - NASA Press Release

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In memory of Ron Hartman 7/23/1935 - 8/30/2011

forwarded by Anne Black from Jim Hartman: Ronald N. Hartman passed away on August 30, 2011, after a brief illness. He was a Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Planetarium at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California for 38 years and was well-known in the community of meteorite collectors and hunters. His passion for meteorites was kindled when he studied astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles under the renowned meteoriticist Frederick C. Leonard, a founder of the Meteoritical Society. He worked at Griffith Observatory giving public lectures in the 1960s and began investigating California dry lakes for the presence of meteorites. He discovered the Lucerne Dry Lake strewn field in 1963 and returned to that site in 1999 to find more of the illusive little black rocks from space. Throughout his career he continued to hunt for meteorites, first at Meteor Crater, Arizona (when it was legal) and Odessa, Texas. He found, traded, bought, cut and sold meteorites as well as tektites and shatter cones and built up a large collection, part of which is displayed at the Mt. San Antonio College Planetarium and library. In 2005 he founded R. N. Hartman, Inc., a company that manufactures, assembles and distributes membrane suspension boxes worldwide. He held a B.A. in Astronomy and a B.A. in Cinematography from the University of California, Los Angeles and an M.A. in Education from California State University at Los Angeles. Ron loved astronomy, he loved teaching and he loved sharing the wonders of the night sky with his students at star parties. He continued teaching even after he retired in 2005. He was fascinated by archeoastronomy and traveled to Egypt to study astronomical alignments in ancient monuments. He was active in the Pacific Planetarium Association and the International Planetarium Society. He served as an editor of the Planetarian Magazine from 1978 \u2013 1981. In 1984 he received the ISP Service Award, the ISP\u2019s most prestigious honor. Ron was the oldest son of Albert and Evelyn Hartman. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 23, 1935, and moved to California at the age of 10. In 1965 he married Petrea Nelson of Reno, Nevada. He is survived by his wife and two sons, James and Rick Hartman, his brother Chris Hartman, a nephew Christopher Hartman and niece Laurel Meable. If you would like to know more about Ron, please go read the Field Report he wrote for us several years ago: http://imca.cc/old_site/metinfo/metadventures/LDL.html

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New Pallasite!

Karl Aston, Robert Ward, and Dave Gheesling have been working on this exciting new project, in conjunction with Dr. Randy Korotev and Dr. John Wasson, for almost two years. An exciting new American Pallasite, Conception Juntion - http://www.conceptionjunctionpallasite.com

Heres a picture of Brix the meteorite hunting dog and his first meteorite!

Meteorite Men: Watch List members Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold for Season 2 of "Meteorite Men" premiers on Discovery's Science Channel. Air times.