If you live in the Bird-in-Hand area, especially if you live on a farm, be prepared for a man to knock on your front door. He'll ask if he can check out your property. Maybe after the crops are harvested.

He's looking for rocks.

Not just any rocks. Meteorites. From outer space.

Meteorites that are probably worth a lot of money. We aren't kidding.

His name is Mike Hankey. He's a meteorite hunter, and he's for real.

"Everyone I've talked to has been really nice," said Hankey, who lives in Freeland, in northern Baltimore County, but has been spending a lot of time in Bird-in-Hand, looking for several rocks that are probably around the size of a softball.

"I'm 20 for 20 talking to people who will let us search," he said. "We've got a two-week window after the corn comes down, before they till the ground. Then they could be lost forever."

Hankey is looking for the remains of a large meteor that tore across the sky over southern Pennsylvania and central Maryland on July 6 at 1:04 a.m.

It's been dubbed the "Mason Dixon Meteor."

Geologists agreed that the meteor was several yards in diameter to generate the attention it got in the sky that night. Some witnesses told of hearing a large boom, others of the entire sky lighting up as it passed before vaporizing at 1:10 a.m..

But once the meteor fell to the ground — becoming a meteorite — it seemed impossible to figure out where it was. After crashing into the atmosphere and burning up, the large meteor probably broke into small fragments.

As luck would have it, Hankey, who is an avid amateur astronomer, got a picture of the meteor from a camera attached to a high-powered telescope in his backyard.

That turned out to be the key to figuring out where the meteorites landed.

"The picture I took had the stars in it. That becomes a road map," Hankey said. "There's nothing more accurate than a stellar recording."

As weeks passed, more photographs and videos came in. One from Pittsburgh was an opposing view to Hankey's and that was the key.

"NASA scientists could pinpoint the trajectory," Hankey explained. "They were able to give a two-mile radius, right in Bird-in-Hand, south of Gordonville."

In addition to farm fields, Hankey has been searching public roads, ditches, whatever is accessible.

He's been searching since July 10, though it was more of a wild goose chase early on.

For a time, it was believed the meteor had crashed in Quarryville.

Hankey says the strewn field — the area where the rocks landed — could be a mile long. But, he adds, once you find one meteorite, it's easier to find the others.

"My wife keeps asking me why I'm doing this and you know, I have a business (he owns a software company) and I've got important stuff to do, but I just can't help myself," Hankey said with a chuckle.

(To see how obsessed he is, check out Hankey's website: mikesastrophotos.com)

So how can you tell a meteorite from a regular old rock?

"Look for a black rock then put a magnet on it, a powerful magnet," Hankey said. "If it sticks, you've got a meteorite. And it may have rust on it, since it's made of metal — iron, nickel. Every time it rains, it rusts."

Hankey said finding meteorites this size in Pennsylvania is highly unusual, and that makes the rock worth a lot on the meteorite market.

Newer meteorites are also more valuable. So are ones that have been named and witnessed by people.

Prices can vary from less than a dollar per gram up to thousands of dollars per gram.

"This one is going to be expensive," Hankey said. "It was a big story when it came down, it crossed state lines and it landed in an Amish area. All these things affect the story, which affects the price."

Does Hankey think he'll be successful?

"The odds of me finding one are close to zero," he said. "But I think I could lead someone to find it."

And you know what they say, a meteorite in the hand is worth two in the bush in Bird-in-Hand.

E-mail: jholahan@lnpnews.com