Astronomy Contributing Editor Mike Reynolds presented a talk at the 2009 Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show about meteorite collecting. During the talk he passed around some great examples. Reynolds is going to share his expertise about meteorites periodically with Astronomy.com blog readers. While chatting with Astronomy magazine Contributing Editor Mike Reynolds the other day, he proposed a (roughly) monthly series that focuses on meteorites....

Astronomy magazine columnist Stephen James O’Meara ’s sent us two blogs from the 2009 Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show. Many thanks to Steve for sending these reports! Day One Arrived in Pasadena Saturday morning and immediately immersed myself in the telescope fever at the Pacific Astronomy Telescope Show (PATS), organized by the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference. This is not a telescope-making convention. It's a telescope expo with more...

NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity recently discovered a roughly watermelon-sized meteorite , the largest ever found on the Red Planet. Even though Opportunity drove by it 2 weeks ago in a Mars region called Meridiani Planum, the rover team decided to have it retrace its steps to examine the unusual rock, dubbed “Block Island.” It might be a pretty big deal. Besides the inherent coolness of meteorites themselves, Block Island might have a lot to say about...

Perplexed by planets? Confused by cosmology? Baffled by black holes? Then send in your questions to Astronomy magazine at askastro@astronomy.com . If you have an astronomy question about observing, the planets, stars, cosmology, or astronomy history, send it in! Five are selected each month for publication in the Ask Astro section of Astronomy magazine. If your question is selected, we will forward it to an expert for his or her response. Then, the...

One of our friends from Canada, Richard Huziak, sent us these pictures of meteorites from the November 20 fireball . Here's the message he sent along with the images: First picture: Approx 1.5Kg, ~8cm in diameter Second picture: Approx 100g, ~ 5cm in diameter (piece of the inside, ablated in flight slightly after fracturing) Third picture: 38.6g, 5cm x 3cm x 1.5cm (my very first find ) The first two were found by a local farmer in the past few...

The day after we had a wonderful night of observing at El Camino Real, the Enchanted Skies Star Party slowed down a bit. Attendees spread out doing a variety of things during the day. Editor's note: View the photo album, Enchanted Skies Star party 2008 , to see images from Dave's time in and around Socorro. I checked out the New Mexico Tech Mineral Museum on the campus, with its spectacular collection of minerals. Thursday, I wrote about the...

In previous blogs, I’ve written about my love for meteorites, including my trip to the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University. I also have a small but enjoyable meteorite collection. As an observational astronomer, I enjoy viewng meteor showers. A recently published book combines these interests and adds a lot more. Meteors and Meteorites: Origins and Observations by Martin Beech ( The Crowood Press , 2006) begins in space with Chapter...

Last month, I had the opportunity to visit the Center for Meteorite Studies (CMS) on the Arizona State University campus in Tempe, Arizona. Oh, my! I was there with Astronomy contributing editor Ray Shubinski who will be writing a story about the CMS for the magazine. Our host, CMS director Meenakshi Wadhwa gave us an in-depth tour of the Center’s facilities and collections. For two old-time meteorite hounds like Ray and myself, being in the “vault...

A piece of the rock that struck Earth 50,000 years ago, creating the Barringer Meteor Crater, this 235.4-gram iron is a classic for all meteorite collections. The meteorite was recognized in 1891; it is an iron octahedrite, coarse (IA). The main mass was vaporized, and about 30 tons have been found. David J. Eicher Last week, I spent several days in Tucson, Arizona, and the surrounding area. Not only was it a welcome relief from the near-constant...

The specimen extracted from the Willamette meteorite. Bonhams If you ask any visitor who has ever wandered the halls of New York's American Museum of Natural History what his or her favorite piece is, you'll get a variety of answers. Some have fond memories of the 94-foot-long blue whale model, suspended from the ceiling. Others will celebrate the dioramas showcasing Earth-bound creatures. Overall, I'd wager most visitors, especially those...