Re: [meteorite-list] India report #2.

[STUARTATK]

Mike,

Just wanted to thank you for taking me - and everyone else on the List - along with you on your latest hunting adventure. I'm one of the, shall we say, "less well off" members of the List, and I can't afford to jump on a plane and do an Indiana Jones like you do, so it is always a treat to be able to travel virtually with you, and others, to far flung corners of the globe in search of new specimens. I wish you nothing but good fortune on this trip, seriously. What I think some others in this community forget is that you're representing ALL of us out there, and I think you're doing a bloody good job, if you'll excuse my language. So, good luck out there - go get 'em! :-)

My own travelling is rather more modest. Two weeks ago I was up in the Shetland Islands -  a scattering of tree-less, wind-swept, sea-battered, aurora-lit rocky outcrops so far north of Scotland they're almost as close to Norway as they are to the British mainland - doing some "Outreach" work in schools up there. It rained almost the whole week, so much I was either going to start growing gills or building a big boat and rounding up pairs of animals, but I had an amazing time. I visited 5 different schools in 5 days, some small, some big, but all the kids I talked to - and the total must have been around 400 over the week - were fascinated by astronomy, and absolutely hypnotised by the selection of meteorites I took along with me to show them and let them hold. Up there, almost totally free from light pollution, and blessed with skies that overflow with stars when the icy North Atlantic winds blow the clouds away, they've had a spectacular view of Mars over the summer, so you can imagine how thrilled they were to be able to see and actually hold tiny pieces of Zagami. My much-travelled Canyon Diablo was passed around again and again, and other pieces were received just as enthusiastically. Wonderful kids, really, so polite and curious, and such fun too! In a school on a tiny island called Whallsay, one girl, Heather, patiently listened to me telling her group how cold Pluto was then raised her hand with a question: "So," she asked in her almost-Scandanavian accent, face absolutely dead-pan serious, "if I went to Pluto with my cat, and threw it outside without a spacesuit on, would it freeze solid?" That was enough of a stunner, but when she went on to enquire if her petrified cat would "break into bits" if she hit it with a hammer I lost it, totally cracked up, even as the teacher looked on aghast, hand over mouth, from the sidelines. ( Turned out the class had seen a demonstration of a rose dipped in liquid oxygen the week before, and Heather put two and two together to make 5...! )

The Shetlands are Viking country, and the Norse mythology about the sky, particularly the aurora, is fascinating. Apparently when the Norse people witnessed an aurora they thought they were seeing, among other things, the Dead playing with the head of a walrus, or clans of gods fighting, splashing blood (the red aurora) across the sky...

Didn't find any meteorites as I wandered the broad, sandy beaches, under a truly enormous sky, but maybe next time. What I do have, which is almost as good, is a big pile of Thank You letters from many of the kids I met, many of them sharing their excitement about getting to hold the meteorites and "bits of Mars", which are very special.

So, not exactly India, but just as exciting in its own way. Good luck out there Mike, you're doing a fine job. I'm sure I speak for a lot of folks on this List, the silent majority, when I say that I'm proud of ya - and very grateful for letting me ride in your pocket as you hunt!

Take care,

Stu