New stuff...Wiluna

Wiluna 55 g. You can see the metal flakes sticking out through the crust.

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Gibeon 244 g

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Guadalupe Y Calvo 28 g Hexahedrite with Neumann lines. This is a piece from the original main mass that was used as a dog's bowl in Mexico. A Texan horse trader realized what it was and traded a new pickup truck for it.

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Santa Clara 28 g ataxite from Durango, Mexico.

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Peekskill 10 g.

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Dar Al Gani 489 1 g Martian shergottite

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Ensisheim 22 g. This is a full slice of one of the two of Bob Haag's specimens before he was elected as a guardian of the meteorite.

The story, as I recall it (going by my memory of a conversation, so please correct me where needed) is that Maximillian wanted to marry Anne of Brittany (12 years old) because two provinces came with her. King Louie of France wanted the same territory and forced Anne to marry him despite a symbolic marriage in which Maximillian sent a proxy to stand in for him. The result was the two went into battle. This meteorite fell one day's march in front of Max. They rode ahead to see it and his advisors called it a sign from God that he would be victorious in battle. He was, and since the meteorite was considered a sign from God it was mounted in a church choir loft. Many years later it was moved across the street to a gasthouse and had been guarded ever since.

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Elbogen 126 g.

This medium octahedrite fell near the castle of the Burgrave (mayor/taxman) at Elbogen in Bohemia. The Burgrave died the day the meteorite fell, and that plus its horsehead shape (the Burgrave's family crest was a horsehead) caused the locals to think the meteorite represented him and they attributed mystical powers to it. The Bewitched Burgrave as it was called was mounted in the castle and it was said that if it was removed it would fly back to its resting place in the castle.

The invading French army, to help subjugate the locals, threw the Bewitched Burgrave into the deepest well on the castle grounds (22 klafters, ~ 130 feet, deep). it did not fly back and was forgotten for years. When the well dried up the meteorite was taken to a local forge to be melted. When it would not melt all of the old stories came back. This piece shows some distortion of the Widmanstatten pattern at the little point where the heat from the forge altered the pattern but was unable to affect the main mass. This was the meteorite Widmanstatten first noted the pattern that eventually bore his name.

This observed fall is listed as 1400 ad, almost 100 years earlier than Ensisheim. That, plus the interesting story attached to it, makes it more mystifying to me that there isn't more information or references to Elbogen out there.

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Dar Al Gani 262, 83 mg Lunar anorthositic breccia.

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Brenham 110 g. Candy bar shape, too thick to back-illuminate effectively.

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