Southern Alberta Star Party

I felt the starry sky’s calling when I was 9 years old and these many years later it still fascinatesme.  Whether viewing the planets, clusters, distant nebula, or a colorful double, the sky brings me home. In the 90s I discovered Meteorites and Eclipses which I fell in love with. Neither of these activities is helping the RRSPs along! In 2009 I was asked to write the Planets section of the RASC’s Observers Handbook and my 18th edition is on its way.

I have lived in lucky times with the Buzzard Coulee meteorite fall and the publication of the discovery of the Whitecourt Meteorite impact in 2008. These events changed my life. What a riot wandering through a farm field and finding stones that have only recently arrived from space and documenting them. A year later I was finding Iron Meteorites in the woods south east of the town of Whitecourt Alberta at the behest of Dr. Chris Herd. These fragments were 1100 years old and gave me a sense of the incredible energy of that impact which tore the 5+ tons of Nickel Iron into fragments and excavated a 37 m crater. We dutifully mapped the strewn field and presented Dr. Herd with the weights and measures of more than 3500 specimens.

Finding meteorites and doing science was the thrill of a lifetime. In this presentation, we will review what meteorites are and look at some of my adventures hunting for these elusive stones.