Field Guide to Meteors and Meteorites

O. Richard Norton, Lawrence A. Chitwood (auth.)9781848001565, 1848001568

It is said that astronomy is one of the few remaining fields in which amateurs can make a real contribution to science, and nowhere is this more true than in the field of meteors and meteorites. Although meteors are isolated and unpredictable, it is possible to predict when meteor showers – usually associated with old comets – are due they last a couple of days, during which many meteors can be observed in a single night. Equipment for watching, counting and even measuring meteors can range from the simplest (a chair) to sophisticated all-sky cameras. What is unique about meteors in astronomical observation is that many survive entry into the Earths atmosphere and impact the ground – the only easily-analysed extraterrestrial material available to science. What is unique about Richard Nortons book is that it is both a field guide to observing meteors, and also a field guide to locating, preparing and analysing meteorites. It is thus the only complete book on the subject available at present.

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Table of contents :
Front Matter….Pages i-xvii
Interplanetary Dust and Meteors….Pages 5-22
Meteorites: Fragments of Asteroids….Pages 23-41
Meteoroids to Meteorites: Lessons in Survival….Pages 43-71
The Chondrites….Pages 75-111
Primitive and Differentiated Meteorites: Asteroidal Achondrites….Pages 113-133
Differentiated Meteorites: Planetary and Lunar Achondrites….Pages 135-148
Differentiated Meteorites: The Irons….Pages 149-165
Differentiated Meteorites: Stony-Irons….Pages 167-173
A Gallery of Meteorwrongs….Pages 175-180
In the Field….Pages 183-199
From Hand Lens to Microscope….Pages 201-237
Back Matter….Pages 239-287