In the Acknowledgements section, I wrote that I was thanking the people who not only “helped directly with the book, but also those who helped me gain the knowledge and experience that I would need in order to write it.” My view is that if you’re writing a how-guide to something, you really need to know your subject. It has been seventeen years since I found my first meteorite, and one of the remarkable things about my work is I am always learning new things, developing new techniques and hunting strategies, testing new equipment, and gathering additional knowledge about the strange and fascinating world of meteorites. If I had written Meteorite Hunting even a year earlier, it would have not been the book that it is. Our successes in the field while filming Meteorite Men Season Two added to its content, because we had unique experiences while hunting for meteorites north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden and in the Australian Outback, and also had the extraordinary pleasure of pitching our tents on the floor of Chile’s mangificent Monturaqui meteorite crater.

"Meteorite Hunting" was published Feb. 1, 2011

My friend Chris Cokinos, author of my favorite meteorite book The Fallen Sky, did me the great honor of writing the Introduction, and astronomer and asteroid specialist Dr. Larry Lebofsky and his wife Nancy, carried out a stellar job as editors. My Meteorite Men co-host, Steve Arnold, read the manuscript and made helfpul comments, as did my researcher Katherine Rambo, and my great friend Dr. Art Ehlmann, Curator Emeritus of the Oscar E. Monnig Meteorite Gallery in Fort Worth, Texas. So, I did call in some heavyweight intellects to assist, and Meteorite Hunting is the best we could make it.

A 468-gram iron meteorite found near the Henbury Craters in Australia

The book features many never-before-seen photographs from the first and second seasons of Meteorite Men. For the past couple of years I’ve been putting aside some of the best location and expedition photos for use in the book. I wanted to save something special for the new work, instead of reprinting photos that viewers and enthusiasts had already seen in other publications.

From Chapter 14
Excavating Meteorites and Documenting Finds

When Steve and I were north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden hunting the Muonionalusta strewnfield, we found a beautiful 30.4-kilogram (67-pound) iron at a depth of about 1 1/2 meters. The meteorite had been transported by a long-vanished glacier and had been deposited in the terminal moraine—unsorted debris dropped as an ice sheet melts and recedes. The iron was securely wedged under a boulder that had also been dropped by the glacier. This find proved that our pulse induction detector could, indeed, see right though large rocks. It also proved that sometimes there is no substitute for hard manual labor. Our permit to hunt at the site specified that we were not allowed to use mechanized vehicles in the forest, so we had to dig the iron by hand. The combined efforts of our four-person team were not sufficient to shift the boulder, which easily weighed several hundred pounds. Sometimes meteorite recovery is all about determination, and there was no way we were leaving that marvelous specimen in the ground. After several strategy discussions, and several hours of experimentation, we greatly expanded the size of hole, dug around the boulder, and under it, until we were able to dislodge the trapped meteorite by having our friend and colleague Carin Österburg jump up and down on it until it worked loose.

Every expedition is different and every challenge requires a new solution. Persistence pays off and, once in a while, brute force wins out.

Meteorite Hunting is 100 pages with full color throughout. It features 100 exclusive photographs, illustrations and diagrams, and was published by Aerolite Meteorites LLC, in Tucson, Arizona. Copies can be ordered safely and easily, online at www.meteoritehunters.tv or by calling the Aerolite offices at 888 SKY ROXX or 520 742 3333.

Watch the skies!

Around 1 am on the morning of February 8, the family was awakened by a bright light and shaking. The shutters flew open and the night was illuminated by a tremendous fireball, followed by a loud boom. “It was almost like high noon,” Vicki recalls. Vicki remembers her father getting a radio or news report, of some kind, about where the impact site might be. The family piled in their van and drove 60 or 70 miles, which took several hours.

The Allison family in Mexico, around the time of the Allende fireball

Shortly after daybreak they arrived at an open field, where several locals were wandering around in a daze. The meteor had exploded in the air and showered the area with multiple pieces, but nobody yet knew exactly what had happened. Mr. Allison saw an odd looking rock on the ground, and “knew it was something unusual,” Vicki remembers. He carried it to the van, and put it in the back.

The family later returned to the United States, and the “unusual rock” was given to Vicki. It was used as a doorstop for many years, until Vicki’s brother saw a show about meteorites on the Discovery Channel and decided to have the Mexican rock examined.

The Allison Allende carbonaceous chondrite (CV3.2) fell to earth on February 8, 1969 in Chihuahua, Mexico. Specimen weight is 4,467 grams, making it one of the largest of its type offered for private sale. As the stone was picked up immediately after the fall it still exhibits a fresh fusion crust.

The owners contacted Aerolite Meteorites who offered to work with the family and find a good home for this important meteorite. The Allison Allende was a featured exhibit during the 2008 Tucson gem and mineral shows. It was recently purchased by a private collector in the United States and can look forward to a brighter furture than its previous life as a doorstop.