Entry number 2 in an ongoing series chronicling the making of Meteorite Men, the science/adventure show I co-host with world famous meteorite hunter Steve Arnold. Exclusive to TucsonCitizen.com

Okay, so we have the deal. It’s all very exciting. Our friends at Science Channel have ordered an entire series of Meteorite Men shows and that means we have a lot of work to do. Here is the scary part: from concept to its world premiere, our one-hour pilot had a luxurious seventeen months to germinate. And we knew where we were going to shoot as well. Steve had made amazing discoveries at two different sites within the U.S., and we were still working at both of them, so the location choices were easy. Now we have a clean slate to work with and it gets a little more complicated—and we surely do not have the seventeen months to spend on each episode this time around.

Steve and I put our heads together and came up with a list of places we wanted to go explore: places that were perhaps scenic, interesting, historic, strange, or fascinating for one reason or another—and where we could also find meteorites. Well, where we hope we could find meteorites. There were over a hundred place names on that list, so we had to whittle it down somewhat.

Next comes the equipment. We are gearheads and experimenting with new, exciting, cool-science gadgets is one of the best parts of doing this job. We’re working with a few outfits to acquire fun things to play with on camera, some of which are entirely new and not even on the market yet. Other devices we will be designing and building ourselves. In the pilot Steve says something like: “You can’t go to the meteorite hunting aisle of your favorite mega-store and get the things you need.” It’s very true, so when the things we want are not available we just build them.

Geoff and Steve: Two gearheads move out for a day of exploration. The big disk behind my head is part of one of our specialized metal detectors. Photograph by Caroline Palmer.

While the gear is being sorted out we have to plan the scouting. I have a bad habit of thinking: It’ll be fine, let’s just get up to the site and figure it all out, but when it comes to expeditions, that’s a not-very-helpful facet of my spontaneous personality. Planning is important. It’s important when it’s just two guys out hunting in the desert with a couple of metal detectors, and it’s vital when you have a film crew, and a support staff, and all kinds of vehicles, cameras, and hi-tech gear trundling around with you. If the schedule is off, you suddenly have a lot of expensive television professionals standing around waiting for the hovercraft to arrive, or something.

So, in order to hopefully minimize scheduling disasters, Steve and I, and some of our producers and teammates have been out and about making the rounds. It is a very good idea to visit potentially hazardous locations with just a couple of people, before bringing the entire troupe in.

And that is how I was almost struck by lightning.

Last week I was out scouting in the mountains. We had a pretty solid report of a meteorite-related structure being discovered in the Chiricahuas. We are hoping to do a little filming here in Tucson, next year. It’s a natural with the world’s biggest gem show in town, so some contemporaneous Arizona field work wouldn’t be amiss. I traveled up to the site with a friend who knows the area really well. My 4WD truck has a big V6 engine and lots of clearance but there were some spots on this trail that I thought were going to be too much for us. It was surely one of the roughest off-road tracks I have ever traveled.

Eventually, we made it to the side of a slope so precarious we just sat there, several thousand feet up, with the wheels slowly spinning and sending a stream of rock chips cascading down the slopes behind us. It burns gas and it’s bad for the tires. “I think this is as far as we go,” I said. So we suited up, got our backpacks, rock hammers, metal detectors, a couple of large-caliber revolvers (you don’t want to be out in those parts without some serious protection), cameras, binoculars, and anything else we could carry, and started hiking. Remember please, it is August in southern Arizona, and that’s more gear that you really want on a hot day.

We’d only gone a few hundred yards when unpleasantly dark storm clouds began rushing furiously over the mountain peak ahead of us. We weren’t sure if the whooshing sound was rain or wind and it turned out to be both. We ran back to the truck as a massive downpour started. Water flowed under the wheels of my truck, parked awkwardly at an angle on the steep, steep track, because I didn’t dare leave only the breaks to defy that much gravity.

The big storms do leave behind some lovely sunsets. Photograph © Geoffrey Notkin

We waited it out. It wasn’t too bad. Lightning hit all around; the ground breathed in moisture and I recalled cowering from European thunderstorms as a kid in London. After about 20 or 30 minutes the front passed, the sky cleared up considerably and we got out of the truck. We were both readjusting our gear when lightning struck a telephone pole not thirty feet from where we were standing. It was one of those freaky and astonishing moments when you hear the crackling before the thunderclap, and that means it’s awfully close. The blast knocked my buddy’s hat off, and left us with ringing in the ears and nasty headaches for the rest of the day.

All that, and the site didn’t turn out to be what we’d hoped. But that is okay too and exactly why we do the scouting first. There are plenty more places to go, and I’ll be taking you along with us.

When a plea from a British school teacher was posted to an international science listserve, Nevada meteorite hunter Ralph “Sonny” Clary made the educator’s seemingly impossible request come true.

In May of 2009, Matthew Smith a teacher in Liverpool, England sent an email to an online forum devoted to meteorites. With a very small acquisitions budget, Mr. Smith was hoping to acquire a few space rocks, to assist with presentations for his students. Sonny Clary, a highly experienced meteorite hunter based in Nevada had just the thing.

Meteorite hunter Ralph "Sonny" Clary takes a compass bearing during a desert expedition

In 2007 Sonny made an extraordinary discovery on an ancient dry lake bed in the American Southwest. While scouting for possible hunting locations he came across a debris field of stone meteorite fragments. He collected numerous pieces and donated representative samples to academia, so the new meteorite could be studied and classified.

After reading Mr. Smith’s request, Sonny packed up more than 90 of the meteorites he’d found, and shipped them to the UK—as a cosmic gift.

More than 90 space rocks donated to a British school by Sonny arrive in the UK

When asked how much the meteorites were worth, Sonny replied: “I feel the true value of these meteorites is being lucky enough to hunt for and find them, and being able to share that excitement with the students by donating to their school and allowing them to experience holding and owning a rock from the asteroid belt. This may help spark the next generation of meteorite enthusiasts.”

He is modest indeed. In total, the meteorite specimens that Sonny donated weighed about five pounds. A conservative estimate would put their retail value at $2,000.

Sonny (left) and his great friend, the late Professor Jim Kriegh planning a desert expedition

Mr. Smith will be writing an article about Sonny’s generous donation for an upcoming issue of Meteorite magazine. The quarterly science journal is published by the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences in Fayetteville, but the editorial team, Nancy and Dr. Larry Lebofsky, are Tucson residents.

English school kids showing off their new space rocks

Looking at the photographs of the enthralled English schoolchildren holding their new meteorites reminded me of something Alexis R. Faust, educator and executive director of the Flandrau Science Center said to me during a recent visit: “It gives you a different perspective on the world when you see it through the eyes of children. It’s rejuvenating.”

The author, looking very haggard (above left) and Sonny after a particularly grueling expedition. Sonny is an expert camper and outdoorsman and I've learned a lot from him.

Sonny Clary is a great example of how one individual can get a classrom full of children excited about science. Those look like some happy kids to me, and I can only imagine how amazed I would have been—when I was a school boy in England back in the 1970s—if an American adventurer had mailed me a space rock.

My compliments to Sonny.

I have always enjoyed chronicling things. When I played music professionally I was the band archivist, forever making tapes of our live performances and preserving a copy of every concert poster.

I have been presented with a unique opportunity to document something a little more unusual—the making of new television adventure series. In the coming months I will be sharing, exclusively with TucsonCitizen.com readers, an unabridged, behind-the-scenes diary about how we created my new show. I hope you find the details, mishaps, and insights to be interesting and entertaining.

Just a few days ago my expedition partner, Steve Arnold, and I received a most important phone call from Debbie Myers, President of Science Channel. A little over a year earlier she had ordered a one-hour pilot from our production company, LMNO of Encino, California. The pilot, Meteorite Men, was a success and so Debbie was calling to share exciting news with us: We were going to series.

The Meteorite Men, Steve Arnold and Geoff Notkin, on location in Kansas. Photograph by Caroline Palmer © Aerolite Meteorites

So, Steve and I will be researching, brainstorming, building and testing new equipment, traveling to strange and possibly dangerous places, engaging in some requisite goofing around and, of course, digging for space rocks.

I am more than a little bewildered by the vast amount of work that we must now accomplish but, as Steve is fond of saying: “If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.”

Come along for the ride. Adventures ahead.

Oh, and while you’re waiting, please check out these exclusive video clips from Meteorite Men, courtesy of Science Channel.