Thanks for taking the time to share Svend. I'll idle away in daydreams of
splendid diogenites by virtue of your splendid descriptions.
Jerry Flaherty
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Svend Buhl" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, June 18, 2006 6:05 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Ensisheim Meteorite show - brief account
Good evening folks,
inquiring minds wanted to know so I take the liberty to offer a brief
account on what was going on on in Ensisheim.
We arrived late friday evening just in time to witness the culmination of
a red wine taste celebrated by a mixed US-Moroccan-German table in the
back yard of La Couronne hotel. Mike Farmer, Mohammed, Dave Schulz, Andi
Gren, Harald Strehlik and Jim Strope shared a number of adventures jumping
from Tokio to Tucson to Las Vegas to the Hamburger Reeperbahn and to some
other bizarre coordinates that slipped through my memory.
The next day presented a concentration of cosmic matter of unseen density
in the historic town hall. People rushed in the exhibition hall like
sharks in a feeding frenzy. For some dealers the show paid off within the
first hours. The competion was massive.
About five or six tables backed up by the Erfoud, Midelt and Zagora
commection were completely focussed on NWAs, most of them uncut. This
meant a lot of work for Marcin who had set up his saw in the yard. As I
stepped by, a croud gathered around the lucky buyer of a freshly cut NWA
that suspiciously resembled a diogenite.
Classic locations were presented in lower quantities, at least that was my
impression. Almost no Sikhotes, just here and there a few, very few
Gibeons, only a handful of Tazas. Campos of course were the exception.
Hans Koser, the king of Campos, had about fifty on his table, beside some
nice Uruacu individuals representing his recent finds. As a surprise he
brought two large slices of the new Brazil meteorite Santa Vitoria do
Palmar (provisionary) with him. That material was offered for 5 EUR /gm.
Beside the planetary and achondritic rarities displayed on the tables of
Mike Farmer, Marcin, Martin Altmann, Stefan Ralew (who was honoured and
accepted as a new guardian of the Ensisheim meteorite)and the other usual
suspects, the tables of Hanno Strufe and J. Nauber need to be mentioned.
J. Nauber displayed a magnificent >2 gm fragment of Chasigny and an
exceptionally well prepared 12gm slice of a striking lunar regolith
breccia.
But the killer was a 32 gm slice of a newly classified diogenite that was
unlike any other I have seen. The yellowish slice looked like an assembly
of humongous centimeter sized pyroxene crystals embedded in a Thai curry
colored matrix spiced with distinct green olivine sparks. Another piece of
exceptional beauty was a yet unclassified meteorite displayed by Andi
Gren, that has chances to enter the Bulletin as the next bencubinite. The
creme de la creme of rare historic US-localities could be found on the
table of Anne Black, I'am convinced her asortment represented at least one
third of the Texas and New Mexico localities.
Compared to the recent years only few tables were set up by Russian
dealers. Surprisingly and in contrast to the general opinion regarding the
recent Oman issues there is still fresh material coming out of Oman. Of
exceptional quality were some heavily shocked and very fresh looking
Eucrites from the Dhofar region. The jet black crust just coated by a fine
layer of caliche twenty potatoe sized individuals lay on a table - a
beautiful sight.
The 1st day ended with the traditional festival, powered by the
Meteor-brewery and the local accordion orchestra. Just in time after a
beaaitiful and hot sunshiny day a deluvian drove everybody into the large
tents where the party continued until the early morning. While one half of
the accordion orchestra continued to play under the portico a group of
four players seperated into the tent and started to battle their
opponents. It was the trumpets of Jericho against the trumpets of the Last
Judgement. The sound was so tremendous, Manfred Dannapfel was scared the
olivines may fall out of his newly acquired Fukang pallasite.
There is much more to tell and those actors I did not mention may forgive
me, as this account is just an impression and by no means representative.
I'am sure others will share there stories and pictures as well.
best regards
Svend
www.niger-meteorite-recon.de
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