Blaine Reed Meteorites List 93 25AUG2010

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax: (970) 874-1487
………………………………………………….. Meteorite LIST 93

August 25, 2010

Dear Collectors,

I am finally getting a bit better. Not fully recovered (still quite weak, and tire out too easily in my opinion yet) but much better (and well past the contagious stage). I am slowly trying to get caught up and back in the groove. But have patience with me if I end up not being able to jump right on things just yet.

I would have had this offering out yesterday, but I got tied up with a rather difficult (and a but frightening) electrical inspection (I was able to do the very light work of finishing the solar panel wiring while stuck in quarantine here at home). I was warned that the local inspector was a real tough one (he only passes about 10% of the jobs the first visit). I had a few minor things that he wanted changed (and, thankfully, he was willing to let me change them as he watched), BUT he wanted to fail me on the inverter - the really expensive thing that changes the DC from the panels into the AC that the house uses. We live in such an extreme area that the temperatures do occasionally go both above and below the inverter's rated operation range (-25C to 40C). Technically, this is a "fail" for the job. The solution, in his opinion, is to buy a different inverter - a $4000 problem. A bit of discussion and pointing out that it does not reach either extreme all that often (quite a bit more often on the hot end than the cold though) and that the inverter will safely self shut down if either extreme is reached. I got off with a pass but a note that the inverter may eventually have to be replaced if we commonly start hitting those extremes (God, I certainly hope not - it is already plenty hot in the summer and cold in the winter here for me). So, once the electric company changes out the meter, I can start it all up and start operating on my "free" electricity.

These items are a few miscellaneous things and last of an item things I have had sitting around for a good part of the summer now. I hope to have another offering or two before the Denver show (time to try and make up a bit for the 3 shows I lost this summer), but I am not certain that will happen. But, if I do have more things to offer, those lists may (as this one) be a bit skewed from the proper timing (but I will try to stay as close as possible).

CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: Coarse octahedrite (IAB)>
This is a really nice complete shale-ball. Usually the shale from this meteorite is seen as isolated flakes and angular fragments. This is a nice flattened egg shape (roughly) intact (aside from a few small edge chips) individual.
138.0 gram complete shale ball - 55mm x 40mm x 27mm - $60

SIKHOTE-ALIN, Russia. Coarsest octahedrite (IIAB). Fell February 12, 1947.
Here are a couple special pieces I have had set aside for awhile. One is a shrapnel fragment that has a very interesting set of holes (more like two holes connected to a fairly large central cavern). The other piece is what some call a "half breed". It is mostly a long, really interesting shaped shrapnel fragment but the fatter end of this has a patch (about 50mm x 25mm) of obvious crust and thumb printing. I have only had a few such pieces over the years (and they all have sold quickly).
a) 94.8 gram shrapnel fragment with holes - 45mm x 30mm x 25mm - $90
b) 429.1 gram crusted/ shrapnel "half breed" - 105mm x 40mm x 25mm - $300

BENSOUR, Morocco: (LL6). Fell February 10, 2002. Tkw = 45+kg.
This is a nice little E-Bay or micro-mount lot. These are a bunch of small (generally 2 to 5mm or so) fragments. They are very fresh and most have a good coverage of black crust (many are actually small half stones). I am willing to "part out" this lot if I do not find a home for it intact, so let me know if you really only need 10 or 20g or such.
75gram lot of small (mostly crusted) fragments - $250

GAO, Burkina-Faso: (H5). Fell March 5, 1960.
This is a small slice that was obviously picked up right after it fell. It is likely from a museum trade (unfortunately, I cannot recall where I picked it up from). Its interior is very fresh. It is mostly very light gray (but shows some faint brown spots) and lots of metal. It also has a couple nice patches of black crust along its edges.
5.3 gram fresh slice - 29mm x 11mm x 6mm - $25

HOLBROOK, Arizona: (L/LL6). Fell July 19, 1912.
This is a nice complete stone. It looks to be a fairly old recovery as it is still black and has only a few tiny hint of rust spotting. This is a complete individual. The tag on its box says "95% fusion crust" but in reality it is more like 99% (it has a couple tiny chips in the crust), as the 5% section the previous owner was looking at as not crust is really a late break and is completely covered in a thin secondary crust. Nice piece and priced well considering the prices I have seen on recently recovered specimens these days ( $30/g for fragments to $50/gram for complete stones is what they were asking for the things in Tucson this year).
6.5 gram complete individual - 22mm x 15mm x 12mm - $130

LEEDEY, Oklahoma: (L6). Fell November 25, 1943.Tkw = 51.5kg.
This is a really nice fresh part slice (one cut edge). It has great crust along more than 50% of its edges that displays really well (one crusted edge is gently sloped so you get a lot of crust display surface along that edge).
14.1 gram crusted part slice - 30mm x 25mm x 6mm - $100

NWA (1930): (LL3). Found 2003. Tkw = 7.5kg.
This is the last piece of this I have. It is a nice end piece that shows lots of chondrules (wonder why this one never got the 3 subtype). This is a bit weathered (only a W2 though and really solid - no cracks) so there is some brown staining that hides the chondrules a bit along part of the outer edge of the polished face.
29.5 gram end piece - 30mm x 25mm x 22mm - $150

NWA (5425): (H4). Found May 2006. Tkw = 995grams.
This is a basic, low shock level (S1) H-chondrite. It still shows a good amount of porosity (this gets crushed out at higher shock levels) and shows plenty of chondrules in a medium gray/brown matrix. My last piece of this!
28.3 gram cut fragment - 32mm x 28mm x 11mm - $20

PONY CREEK, Texas: (H4). Found 1947. Tkw = 4642 grams.
A little bit of this was cut from the main mass and released by TCU awhile ago (and no more will be cut). It is quite nice stuff : lots of metal in a dark gray/green matrix. This is my last piece.
37.6 gram slice - 53mm x 40mm x 6mm - $120

NWA (6136): carbonaceous chondrite (CO3). Found 2008. Tkw = 4670 grams.
Here is a large display worthy end piece (it even sits nice naturally) at a price equal to or less than what a typical raw (unstudied) CO3 specimen would likely cost direct from Morocco. I actually have the other side of this stone (it is my "CO type" display specimen) as well as some slices that need prep work before I make them available later (at a substantially more realistic price - this big chunk is kind of a "summer", or make up for a difficult summer, special for the time being). Its interior is the typical fairly dark mixed brown and gray matrix and shows lots of really small chondrules (I will be trying to get this thin sub-typed to see just what level of 3 it is). There are also a roughly 25mm x 11m m area that looks like it might be an impact melt zone.
535.8 gram end piece - 100mm x 75mm x 40mm - $2100