West Texas Fieldtrip:
Day 4 -- Odessa Crater

IMG00562.jpg(1740365 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 09:15:31,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=24.0mm,  exptime=0.006 s  (1/180),  f/6.7 Large -- Medium

Odessa Crater is a smallish 200m diameter crater near Odessa, TX. Erosion has filled it in until now its only a couple of meters deep.
IMG00563.jpg(1098116 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 09:15:53,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=28.0mm,  exptime=0.006 s  (1/180),  f/6.7 Large -- Medium

Unfortunately, it was cold, rainy, and windy the morning that we looked at the crater.
IMG00564.jpg(924042 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 09:16:30,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=24.0mm,  exptime=0.008 s  (1/125),  f/5.6 Large -- Medium

IMG00565.jpg(940372 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 10:12:21,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=24.0mm,  exptime=0.022 s  (1/45),  f/4.0 Large -- Medium

Iron-Nickel fragments of the impactor at the crater museum.
IMG00567.jpg(1227892 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 10:57:51,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=24.0mm,  exptime=0.003 s  (1/350),  f/9.5 Large -- Medium

IMG00569.jpg(1607975 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 11:02:32,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=24.0mm,  exptime=0.004 s  (1/250),  f/13.0 Large -- Medium

Upturned limestone beds near the crater's rim.
IMG00570.jpg(1755471 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 11:05:06,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=24.0mm,  exptime=0.003 s  (1/350),  f/9.5 Large -- Medium

IMG00571.jpg(1614249 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 11:05:44,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=70.0mm,  exptime=0.003 s  (1/350),  f/6.7 Large -- Medium

Jani plays with the fossiliferous limstone.
IMG00574.jpg(1834980 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 11:11:06,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=24.0mm,  exptime=0.008 s  (1/125),  f/16.0 Large -- Medium

I found this super-sweet fossiliferous limestone with sand embedded in the shells inside the anticline in one of the trenches that researchers dug across this area in the 1930s.
IMG00575.jpg(1459198 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 11:11:37,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=70.0mm,  exptime=0.017 s  (1/60),  f/16.0 Large -- Medium

That's my thumb.
IMG00576.jpg(1059657 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 11:14:30,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=52.0mm,  exptime=0.006 s  (1/180),  f/16.0 Large -- Medium

IMG00577.jpg(1459048 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 11:26:40,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=24.0mm,  exptime=0.008 s  (1/125),  f/16.0 Large -- Medium

Dave Kring standing on the anticline with the pretty fossils with sand in them shown a few pictures ago.
IMG00578.jpg(1115871 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 11:36:49,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=64.0mm,  exptime=0.004 s  (1/250),  f/16.0 Large -- Medium

IMG00579.jpg(1328798 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 11:37:45,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=24.0mm,  exptime=0.006 s  (1/180),  f/16.0 Large -- Medium

Odessa is actually a field of craters, and this is us overlooking crater 2.
IMG00580.jpg(1327531 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 11:43:53,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=24.0mm,  exptime=0.008 s  (1/125),  f/16.0 Large -- Medium

IMG00581.jpg(1525055 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 11:47:32,  [1512 x 2268],  fl=N,  f=39.0mm,  exptime=0.008 s  (1/125),  f/16.0 Large -- Medium

IMG00582.jpg(1330548 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 11:49:27,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=24.0mm,  exptime=0.004 s  (1/250),  f/16.0 Large -- Medium

IMG00585.jpg(618813 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 12:39:10,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=70.0mm,  exptime=0.008 s  (1/125),  f/4.0 Large -- Medium

After looking at the crater, we were treated to a BBQ lunch by the man that has worked to preserve the crater as a museum.
IMG00586.jpg(1064117 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 12:39:33,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=70.0mm,  exptime=0.008 s  (1/125),  f/4.0 Large -- Medium

An impromptu (as far as we knew, anyway) hobnob session with local crater officials followed.
IMG00587.jpg(1089226 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 12:47:16,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=70.0mm,  exptime=0.067 s  (1/15),  f/8.0 Large -- Medium

This is the mother of one of the boys that found the Monahans meteorite in 2001 while they were playing basketball.
IMG00588.jpg(1104931 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 12:47:53,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=36.0mm,  exptime=0.017 s  (1/60),  f/4.0 Large -- Medium

IMG00589.jpg(1496138 bytes) -- SIGMA-SIGMA SD9,  2004:04:03 12:48:08,  [2268 x 1512],  fl=N,  f=36.0mm,  exptime=0.008 s  (1/125),  f/5.6 Large -- Medium

Those old self-portrait shots just don't work very well with the new Sigma cacmera.