Hello List,
I am offering the 78.8g specimen for sale.
Photo of the 78.8g specimen here: http://members.aol.com/meteorhntr/78-8.jpg
The specimen is all light material (this is why the crust is so gorgeous) with at least one tiny shock vein that is visible from one broken face. Even though this was found maybe 12 hours after the fall in the grass, you will not see a more fresh example from this strewnfield.
While it probably is worth more, I did buy this at a reasonable price, and I would rather not cut this unless I have to. So the first person who offers me $25/g ($1,970) gets it, or the highest offer over $19/g ($1,497) by Sunday Afternoon gets it.
If you didn't read the story in my previous posts, here it is again:
On the night of April 26, just before midnight, Matt was heading to his home driving on Steger Road just west of the Kings Road intersection in Steger, IL when the night sky lit up for several seconds. Slightly amazed and mostly confused he continued driving home. Turning on Western Street heading through 3 stoplights into Park Forest, he turned into his neighborhood making several turns to the end of his street, where he pulled into his driveway, then immediately backed up and pulled his car back onto the side of the street to park it for the night. He got out of his car and started walking up his driveway to the side door of his home.
All of a sudden he heard a noise that immediately registered in his mind as sounding exactly like a bullet passing near his head (he told me that he has indeed heard bullets pass near his head before). Immediately, his reaction was to "hit the deck" thinking someone was shooting at him, so that is what he did. But even as he was falling to the ground, a 78.8g meteorite smashed into the driveway exactly at the spot where he was walking just two and a half seconds before, just 8 feet behind him!
Still thinking someone was shooting at him, he crawled to his house door and hurried in. Shaking it off, he decided just to go to bed. Early the next day, he learned about the meteorite fall in Park Forest and when he returned home he found the 78.8g specimen about 20 feet away in his front yard and an impact pit in the blacktop driveway.
While the story was amazing, it got me thinking; just how many minutes delay is there between the time a fireball burns out and the actual impact event? I asked the guy and he guessed that it probably took him 5 minutes or so to go from where he saw the fireball go out and when he almost got hit by the impact. I actually retraced his route today and my stopwatch clocked 3:58, and I paused it as I got stuck at two of the three stoplights along the way.
This also got me wondering if the fall date of March 26 is correct or should it really be March 27th. This specimen may end up leading to the fall date being changed. We will see.
Anyway, I was able to acquire the specimen, and I even got a plaster of paris mold of the impact pit. Both are for sale.
Steve Arnold
