Thanks Lomonaut, Michael and Greg for your comments. I'm glad you found this interesting. I did have a lot of fun over the past couple of months.
First I had to give myself an optical mineralogy crash course, which was difficult but really interesting.
Now I can do most of the basic things like measuring extinction angle, sign of elongation, relief, and using the Michel-Levy chart to obtain the birefringence value and interpreting the conoscopic interference figures.
But many of the common minerals can be identified without too much trouble, as they have certain combinations of colour, pattern and texture and geological context that immediately give their identity away without having to do any intricate optical measurements.
I think there isn't as much focus on geology on this forum as there is on biological samples, so instead of trying to explain the countless torturous details here I refer those interested to my
mineralogy website. It contains many pictures of minerals I have identified so far, as well as links to a number of optical mineralogy textbooks and databases that I found very helpful if you wish to do it.
As for the meteorite above, the circular chondrules distinguish it from most terrestrial rocks. It is a chondrite, a type of meteorite that contains material from the solar system when it was still young and a swirling cloud of dust and gas with no planets yet. These meteorites also did not undergo extensive metamorphism subsequent to initial formation, so they give a glimpse into the early solar system. The particular radiating chondrule shown in the picture was formed when molten ore cooled rapidly, producing the radiating fan-like crystals.
The colourful rounded grains are probably olivine, which is common in such meteorites and is colourless in plane-polarized light (upper left) but have high interference colours (blues, yellows, reds, greens etc.) as shown at lower left. Some materials (e.g. metals, oxides) are opaque even at 30-micrometer thickness and look black in both plane and cross-polarized transmitted light. These can be analysed in reflected light, in which they have different reflectances (brightness) and colours, and polarization characteristics analogous to transparent minerals in transmitted light.
Greg - I'm surprised to hear how expensive your thin sections were. Are they very rare specimens or had some special treatment during preparation? Or does your one "set" comprise multiple thin sections that were collated across many different places, so the cost included the geological expertise and travel fees?
Most labs (US, Canada, Europe, Australia for example) charge about $25-$30 for a basic thin section in standard 30-micrometer thickness. If you want it polished (for reflected light for example) or stained etc., it costs only a few dollars more. Then you add shipping and that's it. Most of my rocks were done by one of them. I thought that was reasonable for the equipment and skills needed to make a proper thin section.
Greg
I tried to upload the lab booklet on here but the file is too big 
It may be too basic for you, anyway... Still, there are useful resources for thin sections on the internet.
