Ancient Fragments of the Solar System -- Interplanetary Dust and Meteors -- Meteorites: Fragments of Asteroids -- Meteoroids to Meteorites: Lessons in Survival -- The Family of Meteorites -- The Chondrites -- Primitive and Differentiated Meteorites: Asteroidal Achondrites -- Differentiated Meteorites: Planetary and Lunar Achondrites -- Differentiated Meteorites: The Irons -- Differentiated Meteorites: Stony-Irons -- A Gallery of Meteorwrongs -- Collecting and Analyzing Meteorites -- In the Field -- From Hand Lens to Microscope.

Imagine the unique experience of being the very first person to hold a newly-found meteorite in your hand – a rock from space, older than Earth! "Weekend meteorite hunting" with magnets and metal detectors is becoming ever more popular as a pastime, but of course you can’t just walk around and pick up meteorites in the same way that you can pick up seashells on the beach. Those fragments that survived the intense heat of re-entry tend to disguise themselves as natural rocks over time, and it takes a trained eye – along with the information in this book – to recognize them. Just as amateur astronomers are familiar with the telescopes and accessories needed to study a celestial object, amateur meteoriticists have to use equipment ranging from simple hand lenses to microscopes to study a specimen, to identify its type and origins. Equipment and techniques are covered in detail here of course, along with a complete and fully illustrated guide to what you might find and where you might find it. In fact, the Field Guide to Meteors and Meteorites contains pretty much everything an amateur astronomer – or geologist – needs to know about meteors and meteorites.