Blaine Reed Meteorites LIST #79- 3NOV09

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………LIST 79
November 3, 2009

Dear Collectors,

I am sorry that this is going out a bit late today. I have managed to get myself into a project that is turning out to be a bit more involved and difficult than what it originally appeared. I picked up a couple used solar hot-air panels a month or so ago and decided (with a good dose of really cold weather a week or so ago) it was time to install them. This seemed like a simple thing on paper, but the actual job has been very time consuming (I have been working on it off and on for close to a week now) and quite expensive for "free" heat. I do finally have the things mounted on the wall and pipes run so heat is arriving. Unfortunately, it is arriving in such huge quantities that I cannot seem to get a fan system to keep up. I finally have given up for the day. I had to hang sheets over the panels (thankfully there is no wind today) as the fans I was using are verging on melting! (the air was coming out of the vent at a bit over 160F) . I will to stop and reconsider how to deal with this later. So, now, finally is a list!

I do have some travels coming up:

I will likely be gone this Friday until Monday (November 6th through the 8th)..

I also have a show next week. This will be in Socorro, New Mexico (about an hours drive south of Albuquerque on I-25) for the Mineral Symposium that I have been attending for about 25 years now. I will set up a room of stuff, though not quite as filled as Denver or Tucson. I will be at the Comfort Inn on the very north end of town (on the west side of the interstate). I am supposed to be in room 119, but things often get goofed up in this show (very few ever get the same room year after year), so I cannot be absolutely certain of this. I will be open at about 5pm Friday November 13th (until around midnight) and again on Saturday the 14th from around 6pm until midnight. Let me know if any of you might make it and what you might like me to bring and I'll be sure to load it up to go with. For this event, I will likely be gone from home from Nov 12th until possibly November 19th (Linda wants to goof off a bit and visit friends in Durango on the way home, if she ends up coming along)

KORRA KORRABES, Namibia: (H3). Found August 2000, tkw = 140kg.
This piece is a much fresher than usual for this meteorite. It has a generally lighter color than most specimens (light grays and browns where as most Korra is usually dark brown). This allows the numerous medium gray clasts mixed in the chondrule-rich matrix to be readily visible.
47.9 gram cut fragment - 50mm x 40mm x 14mm - $80

NWA (5421): (LL3.7). Found 2008, Tkw = 2200grams.
When people see this one they usually simply say "wow". This (generally) has really large chondrules of many colors (resembling the famous and really expensive Ragland meteorite but just much larger scale). This stuff has pretty much completely sold itself. I never really got the chance to offer it publicly. I have only these 3 pieces left (and only because I had them set aside). The small piece is a bit small to really get an appretiation for the texture of this stuff, but is a good size for thin-sectioning (the main reason this one was put back). The large slice I set back because it was a large piece and it has an interesting zone of dark and fine-chondruled material blotched through the center. The end piece shows some thumb-prints and actually still shows a little bit of black crust. Its internal texture is really mostly the finer dark material but it does have one end showing the "anomalously large" chondrules (including one that is nearly 1cm across) that I more associate with this meteorite.
a) 2.5 gram slice - 25mm x 12mm x 2.5mm - $30
b) 92.6 gram complete slice - 115mm x 80mm x 4mm - $1000
c) 99.6 gram end piece - 75mm x 42mm x 25mm - $800

NWA (5488): (Lodranite), brecciated. Found 2008. Tkw = 110grams +.
Here are a few more pieces of this rare and interesting stuff. I quickly sold out of all I had when I first offered it. I managed to beg for a few more pieces so I would have some for people waiting for pieces as well as some for my upcoming show and such. This is fairly dark material, but it does show a great breccia texture with angular to sub-rounded fragments of all sizes.
a) .4 gram slice - 13mm x 7mm x 2mm - $32
b) 1.4 gram slice - 16mm x 15mm x 2mm - $112
c) 2.0 gram slice - 23mm x 20mm x 2mm - $160
d) 4.0 gram slice - 37mm x 19mm x 2mm - $300
e) 6.8 gram slice - 40mm x 27mm x 2mm - $500
f) 15.7 gram END PIECE - 40mm x 30mm x 6mm - $900 - shows really nice breccia texture including one large 12mm x 8mm clast.
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SULAGIRI, India: (LL6). Fell September 12, 2008. Tkw = 110kg.
This is a large cut fragment (with 2 patches of crust) of a large piece (the "Attakuruki" mass) that landed in a road next to a cow pen. This piece even has a small (1cm or so) blotch of cow dung to lend a bit authenticity to its fall history. This has a 80mm x 60mm cut face, 2 crust patches (one about 65mm x 50mm that shows scratches, coloration from contact with the dirt and rocks as it made its crater in the road and the other a dark, clean 70mm x 30mm triangular shaped patch). This comes with a card telling a bit of its history that also has a photo of the impact pit it came from in the road with a couple cows lying beside the road with people gathered around the hole. This is NOT cheap stuff. Most others I know that have gotten pieces of this fall paid close to $18/g (and sometimes more). This is less than half of that (but the weight does make the raw number quite large none the less).
994.8 gram cut fragment with dung and crust - 80mm x 60mm x 80mm - $8000