BRAHIN

THE 4TH SPHERE OF MY COLLECTION

PURCHASED JANUARY 2ND, 2007

When I first started collecting meteorite spheres I never imagined I would have a pallasite in my collection. During my many searches of the Internet, I found an on-line store called Spheres To You that probably had the largest selection of terrestrial spheres and definitely had the largest selection of meteorite spheres. Although I had most of what they had available, I occasionally checked back to see if they had anything new. One day I noticed they had added 2 Brahin pallasite spheres to their meteorite page but had incorrectly called them "Belarus". I called and talked with Jeff who determined that they had one that fit my 50mm requirement, so I started to save up for it. Once I had enough hobby money set aside, I called to place my order, however, Jackie told me to wait until after the New Year since everything on her site would be 30% off. I called back and ordered the sphere. When I received it I couldn't wait to get home so I opened it in the parking lot of the Post Office. I was not impressed. It looked like a solid olivine ball with virtually no iron veining. Once I got it home I examined it closer & determined it had been painted with some sort of clear coat, I removed it with acetone. Upon further examination I realized that most of the iron veins had started to rust with the heaviest deposits closest to the crystals which gave the impression of thin iron veining. I spent 3 hours polishing & buffing the sphere to a mirror like finish. I have not had any rust issues yet and do not anticipate any. I believe the clear coat trapped moisture on the surface which accelerated the rusting process. A very unique feature of this sphere is that some of the crystals are so thin that you can see the iron matrix behind them. Although Brahin isn't one of the classic pallasites I'm very proud to have this specimen in my collection.