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CAMPO del CIELO THE 3RD SPHERE OF MY COLLECTION COMPLETED SEPTEMBER 16TH, 2006 This is the first sphere I made with a process I developed. When I first started collecting meteorite spheres I figured they would be available in a variety of classifications, however, I soon discovered that only the most commonly available & popular meteorites were made into spheres. Gibeon & NWA 869 were fairly common, Campo & Muonionalusta were available but in very limited quantities & I had been told about 2 Brahin Spheres that were available but out of my comfortable price range. I was very interested in the etch pattern of Campo but couldn't find a sphere in a size that fit my collection. Since I was having such a difficult time locating a suitable sphere for my collection I decided to figure out a way to make one. After some serious research I realized that the conventional way of grinding spheres on a 3-head sphere machine would be both wasteful and impractical for iron meteorite material. Having a background in metal machining processes I started to think outside of the box. I developed a process of machining a sphere with modified conventional metal working tools. I purchased a 57 pound Campo and produced two 50mm test spheres with my new process. It worked really well but it was cost prohibitive to use on an inexpensive material such as Campo so I sold the remaining portion of the 57 pound meteorite on eBay, which wasn't easy since it had a 2" hole through the center of it. I polished and etched both spheres but wasn't very happy with the results. I tried a variety of etching techniques but most of them resulted in a less then impressive etches. I even sent them to Bob Cucchiara and while his etches was the best so far, I still wasn't happy. Eventually I tried a modified version of Ruben Garcia's technique. It produced the fabulous results you see below. Although Campo is probably the most abundant meteorite available I'm very proud of my sphere, it's truly a labor of love and it's my favorite sphere. If you would like to read more about my process, click this:
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Name: Campo del Cielo - This is an OFFICIAL meteorite name. Observed fall: No Year found: 1576 Country: Argentina Mass: 50MT Classification: IAB-MG / Course Octahedrite Circumstances of the fall or discovery: The exploration of Campo del Cielo was impelled by the search of the Mesón de Fierro -large table of iron- (expeditions of Mexía de Miraval - 1576, Maguna 1774), Francisco de Ibarra (1779) and Rubín de Celis (1782)). It was believed that the Mesón was the blooming of a silver vein, first, and one of iron later. After the expedition of 1782 their rake was lost. In 1803 Don Diego de Rueda came out in its search, but he was not successful. The expedition commanded by Don Fernando Rojas (1804) gave found a metallic fragment similar to a "standing dry log". In 1923, the Dr. Nágera carried out the first work dedicated to the craters of Campo del Ciel. In 1962 and 1963 several scientists, headed by the Dr. Cassidy and accompanied by the Argentinean geologist Dra. Villar, carried out expeditions to the area . Source: Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 36, Moscow (1966) reprinted Met. 5, 85-109 (1970) |
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