Mike's Astro Photos
Sep.12 2009

Meteor Postcards

by , under Mason Dixon Meteor

I plan on sending out close to 2,000 of these post cards next week to property owners with 10 or more acres in the 6 zip codes that include and surround the Lancaster County search area. Within the last few days I have started to get more meteorite found reports. The leads that I have followed up with so far have turned out to be slag. To a meteorite novice, slag really does look like a meteorite or what you would think a meteorite would look like if you had never seen one before. Slag is black, often magnetic and burnt. It is easy to mistakenly think a piece of slag could be a meteorite.

With this post card I hope to 1) Raise awareness and excitement with a broad number of residents that extend beyond our refined search area. 2) Give the residents an informational and visual guide to help them identify a meteorite 3) Let them know about slag and how to identify it.

Here is the front of the card:

Meteor Postcard Front

Meteor Postcard Front

Here is the back of the card:

Meteor Postcard Back

Meteor Postcard Back

I plan on sending this out next Tuesday or Wednesday. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions before these hit the mail.

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4 Comments for this entry

  • Mark

    Just a couple of suggestions. First, I think some slag can be attracted to a magnet. Remember all the junk we had sticking to our magnetic sweepers along the gravel road the first day we went out searching? Slag was our enemy. Second, on your post card you start out saying that a “large” meteorite fell in the area. That might cause residents to be on the look-out only for something large. Perhaps it would be best to say that a large meteor exploded or disintegrated over the region, and to keep an eye out for the fragments. Just my 2 cents worth. Good luck!

  • Norm

    The mailers look really good.I think that this will be a deciding factor in finding this meteorite. Knowledge is power!!

  • Sanny

    I like the green check, where did you get that idea? :-)

  • Russell

    Excellent idea with the postcards, I agree that I might need to rethink my strategy. There is just too much area to cover by searching. It is more likely that a local will find the first piece or maybe already has. Fliers could be handed out at church or posted up on restauraunts, markets, schools, post offices, hardware stores, etc… might also be a good idea to inform the public and increase the odds of finds being reported. Also on a side note, i think that some of the amish who are very helpful and friendly that i met were a little bit offended when i suggested that I would buy or offer a reward to anyone who had information about the meteorite. Its not there custom to recieve a large amount of money or get alot of publicity by looking for rocks. This kind of work may be more frowned/condemned upon in the future by their community if were not careful.

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