Telescope Reviews: Took the leap - joined the Meteoritical Society!

I joined the Meteoritical Society yesterday.

It's also known as the International Society for Meteoritics and Planetary Science. It's a fairly-serious academic group that consists of a wide variety of members from around the world - mostly scientists, retired scientists, hardcore collectors, dealers, and a smattering of members whose speciality is outside meteoritics but in a related science. They publish the monthly "MAPS" journal, which is a peer-reviewed planerary science and meteoritics journal.

http://meteoriticalsociety.org

The Meteoritical Society was founded by the grandfather of meteoritics, Harvey H. Nininger. (and member Fredrick C. Leonard) in 1933 - when meteoritics was not considered a serious field of research and even the famous "Meteor Crater" near Canyon Diablo Arizona was still under debate about it's origin with many naysayers who believed it was the result of terrestrial volcanic action.

Today the Society is still very relevant in Meteoritics and is the world's leading authority on the subject. And I hope that by joining them, some of their collective knowledge and experience will rub off on me. Afterall, it did work to some degree here on CN!

I would encourage anyone who is deadly serious about studying the science behind meteorites to join the Meteoritical Society. The cover charge is a bit steep (as are most "serious" academic organizations, even those open to the general public - which is rare), but the access gained to the latest developments in the field is surely worth the asking price. Such groups are rarely open to the general public, but meteoritics is a unique science in the sense that many "laypeople" are responsible for important discoveries. Major universities and government entities are limited to the meteorites they find in the field during expeditionary work. Meanwhile, many large private collectors are roaming the world buying up unclassified meteorites and having them classified - donating slices of the rare types (like Martians and Lunars) to science in the form of classification and they are exposing the world to meteorites that would have lain in the field to rot and never to be discovered. Even the most "high brow" parts of the astronomy/cosmology world have grown to accept the meteorite hunter who hunts for profit or personal gain, but shares his/her discoveries with science and the world. Science can either turn away potential breakthroughs, or embrace these laypeople. This appears to be a running theme in astronomy in general - not many other areas of science embrace the amateur so warmly. It's a wonderful thing IMO.

Clear falling skies!

MikeG

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Michael Gilmer - Member of the Meteoritical Society & Collector of Falling Stars.

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