The latest news from MAGS
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FROM THE MAY MAGS ROCKHOUND NEWS
Spencer Opal

05.01.2008: MIKE BALDWIN: Spencer, Idaho, population 38, is home to one of the largest opal deposits in the United States. Two lost deer hunters discovered opal in this area in 1948 and the first claim was filed in 1952. Today there are four commercial opal companies there. Though white is the most common color around the world, Spencer miners find rare red, pink and blue opal. Click here to learn more about opal.
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FROM THE APRIL MAGS ROCKHOUND NEWS
It's Showtime . . . and Show-up Time
04.05.2008: WC McDANIEL: It’s 9:00 am Saturday, April 26 and Midsouth rockhounds are lining up to enter the Pipkin Building for the 29th annual Mid-America Mineral, Fossil, and Jewelry Show. As the doors swing open to the best show in the Midsouth, patrons will see twenty-nine dealers occupying 224 tables, the MAGS collections, exhibits and demonstrations. Click here to go on a tour!
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FROM THE MARCH MAGS ROCKHOUND NEWS
The MAGS Collection

03.11.2008: DAVID DAY: All who attended our February indoor field trip shared an excellent opportunity to have a “hands-on view” and to assist in seriously sorting the rocks and minerals recently acquired by the club we
now simply call THE COLLECTION. Click here to read more about the collection in the March MAGS Rockhound News.

FROM THE FEBRUARY MAGS ROCKHOUND NEWS
Agate

02.07.2008: SHELBY HARTMAN: Agate, which is a variety of chalcedony
quartz, is quite common. People walk over it along gravel roads without realizing it. It’s found all over the world, in Africa, Asia, Brazil, Egypt, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Nepal, and the United States.. Click here to read more about agates in the February MAGS Rockhound News.

FROM THE NOVEMBER MAGS FIELD TRIP
The simple beauty of Devonian fossils

11.29.2007: DAVID DAY: Collectors of curious rocks should appreciate the simple beauty of this Devonian fossil found at the Vulcan Quarry during our November field trip to the Parsons Tennessee Facility. Twenty-five early-bird club members were rewarded with beautiful weather and bountiful fossils thanks to the friendly folks at Vulcan. The club does not schedule a December field trip. However we do start planning for next year and your suggestions are welcome as we discuss and develop the field trip calendar for 2008.
PHOTO BY DAVID DAY.

FROM THE NOVEMBER MAGS MEMBERSHIP MEETING
MAGS acquires a mineral collection

11.29.2007: WC McDANIEL: At the MAGS membership meeting on Friday, November 9 members uncrated, unpacked, unwrapped and premiered a collection of about 1,150 mineral specimens stored in sixty boxes for almost 25 years. MAGS acquired the collection this past summer and it represents a unique opportunity for the club and its members. PHOTO BY MIKE BALDWIN. Click here to read more about the newly acquired mineral collection.

TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
Aluminum foil your specimens
09.09.2007: Many people use newspaper or sheets of tissue to wrap their specimens in the field. Specimens wrapped in newspaper tend to become unwrapped in transport. Paper can also blow away. Give aluminum foil a try as a substitute for newspaper or tissue. It's lightweight; can be stored and transported in its original container and torn off as needed; and you can use as much or as little as you need to wrap your specimen. Try wrapping your specimen twice: wrap the first layer loosely, then add a second layer a bit tighter. This technique will leave provide a bit of a cushion for your specimen and help minimize damage in transport. If you have other collecting tips and techniques that you have found useful, drop MAGS an email and share them with others.

LAPIDARY PROJECT
A Basic Pendant Wirewrapping Lesson
08.15.2007: Jurnesse Farley has granted MAGS permission to share her web lesson on wirewrapping with you. Click here for a step-by-step lesson on how to make a basic wirewrapping pendant.

PALEONTOLOGY ARTICLE
Upper Cretaceous fossils of Frankstown, Mississippi

07.12.2007: MIKE BALDWIN: Once or twice a year MAGS members travel to Frankstown, Mississippi to search for sharks' teeth and other vertebrate fossils in the streambed sand of Twenty Mile Creek. PHOTO BY MIKE BALDWIN. >>read more>>

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On the MAGS blog
Topics on the MAGS blog include: Wells Creek Impact Crater, Frankstown fossils, Great Smoky Mountains geology, Tennessee geology, fluorescent minerals and meteorites. Drop by and check it out.


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SPACE EXPLORATION NEWS
Potentially habitable planet orbits Gliese 581 c
04.25.2007: European astronomers this week announced the discovery of a potentially habitable planet about 1.5 times larger in diameter than Earth, orbiting a star very different from our sun. >>read more>>

Red trees on alien planets
04.24.2007: A team of NASA scientists led by a member of the Spitzer Science Center believe they have found a way to predict the color of plants on planets in other solar systems. >>read more>>

First steps to Mars
04.02.2007: The landing site is unknown. The rockets are still on the drawing board. Some of the astronauts haven't even been born yet. Never mind all that. NASA's journey to Mars has already begun. >>read more>>

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"The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
–Marcel Proust (French Philosopher)

"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."
–Sir Edmund Hillary

" How to minimize the impact of a volcanic eruption
already in progress . . . Run."
–Anonymous