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UV Lights and Fluorescent Minerals - a fun side hobby to metal detecting !

Wow, just caught up on viewing the specimens I hadn't seen since my previous visit, you are indeed growing an amazing collection KT !!!! :thumbsup:

.....thanks for continuing to add your new specimens to this thread, it is appreciated !!!!

You could eventually get enough specimens to open up your own local fluorescent mineral museum !!!!!

We can see it now ..... KT's Royal Fluorescent Mineral Museum !

(admission: one silver coin :lol:)
 
Wow, just caught up on viewing the specimens I hadn't seen since my previous visit, you are indeed growing an amazing collection KT !!!! :thumbsup:

.....thanks for continuing to add your new specimens to this thread, it is appreciated !!!!

You could eventually get enough specimens to open up your own local fluorescent mineral museum !!!!!

We can see it now ..... KT's Royal Fluorescent Mineral Museum !

(admission: one silver coin :lol:)

:laughing::laughing: Admission: 1 silver half…64 or earlier! :lol::lol:
 
One specimen I ordered from in the USA arrived today. A sample from Sterling Mine, Sussex Co., NJ.

The first picture is it in natural light.

Second photograph shows its response to LWUV 365 nm. The fluorescent orangish vein mineral is sphalerite and not easily recognized in the first picture.

The third photograph shows the specimens response to SWUV 254 nm. The sphalerite still presents an orangish response tho not as strong, but the matrix gives a speckled green response, showing the fair amount of willemite in the host rock. Both willemite and sphalerite are ores of Zinc, but have different chemical compositions. SWUV really reveals the texture of this specimen!

Sorry that the fluorescent pics are slightly out of focus, but after a lot of picture taking the Royal Photographer gave up !! :laughing::laughing:
 

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One specimen I ordered from in the USA arrived today. A sample from Sterling Mine, Sussex Co., NJ.

The first picture is it in natural light.

Second photograph shows its response to LWUV 365 nm. The fluorescent orangish vein mineral is sphalerite and not easily recognized in the first picture.

The third photograph shows the specimens response to SWUV 254 nm. The sphalerite still presents an orangish response tho not as strong, but the matrix gives a speckled green response, showing the fair amount of willemite in the host rock. Both willemite and sphalerite are ores of Zinc, but have different chemical compositions. SWUV really reveals the texture of this specimen!

Sorry that the fluorescent pics are slightly out of focus, but after a lot of picture taking the Royal Photographer gave up !! :laughing::laughing:

Really neat specimen KT ! :thumbsup:

Amazing the difference between the 365nm and 254nm !

The 254nm kinda looks like crumpled up green aluminum foil :lol: don't mean that in a bad way though, makes for a very interesting look ! :shock:
 
Wow, this is a really interesting thread. I have an interest in minerals also. It will take awhile to really get caught up with the posts. I do have a couple of questions for you all.

1) King - you mentioned a light:
"The US made lamp has a deep purple filter, 3 Cree bulbs, uses 2 or 3 18650 Li ion batteries and is about, with 3 batteries, 10 inches long. Batteries must be removed to install in a wall mount battery charger. Cost ~ $80 including batteries and charger unit."
I am avoiding purchases from China. Do you have a name or model for this light or other non-Chinese lights?

2)GKL - You seem to do some field collecting. Do you use your light in the field or just for collected samples at home. I might be afraid of falling in a hole searching at night.

Thanks again for the great thread!!!
 
Wow, this is a really interesting thread. I have an interest in minerals also. It will take awhile to really get caught up with the posts. I do have a couple of questions for you all.

1) King - you mentioned a light:
"The US made lamp has a deep purple filter, 3 Cree bulbs, uses 2 or 3 18650 Li ion batteries and is about, with 3 batteries, 10 inches long. Batteries must be removed to install in a wall mount battery charger. Cost ~ $80 including batteries and charger unit."
I am avoiding purchases from China. Do you have a name or model for this light or other non-Chinese lights?

2)GKL - You seem to do some field collecting. Do you use your light in the field or just for collected samples at home. I might be afraid of falling in a hole searching at night.

Thanks again for the great thread!!!

OldSchoolSimple: KT here. Yes, the Long Wave lamp I use is a UVBeast flashlight style lamp…be certain when looking on their web site to only buy the one that is 365 nm wave length, because minerals give better response to that wavelength than the much cheaper 395 led units. The unit I have looks like a flash light with a dark purple filter and has 3 Cree “bulbs” as the light source, not the 100 or so led bulbs that the cheaper Chinese units have. This unit is so strong that it throws out enough visible light to see by at night, but in your instance, I would get a cheap head lamp to use in conjunction with it. Do realize that if you use the head lamp very much, you will need to let your eyes have a little time to adjust to the darkness to see weakly fluorescent things in the woods. But I can spot a fluorescent rock some 20’ away with it! It costs about $85. Now the short wave lamp Is called The Triple. If you search that name, you will find it on sale on the makers web site…search for The Triple Short Wave lamp, 254 nm. Good sw response at some 6” from specimen, cost around $145.

Also buy both units with the plug in the 120v wall charger box, not the cord with 12v wall charger unit. I went up on eBay and bought some extra batteries so I could have an extra charged set for each unit.

Best of luck! :D:D
 
Wow, this is a really interesting thread. I have an interest in minerals also. It will take awhile to really get caught up with the posts. I do have a couple of questions for you all.

1) King - you mentioned a light:
"The US made lamp has a deep purple filter, 3 Cree bulbs, uses 2 or 3 18650 Li ion batteries and is about, with 3 batteries, 10 inches long. Batteries must be removed to install in a wall mount battery charger. Cost ~ $80 including batteries and charger unit."
I am avoiding purchases from China. Do you have a name or model for this light or other non-Chinese lights?

2)GKL - You seem to do some field collecting. Do you use your light in the field or just for collected samples at home. I might be afraid of falling in a hole searching at night.

Thanks again for the great thread!!!

Thanks, glad you are enjoying this thread !

I have a 1 1/2 acre yard right next to a forest and it's fairly rough as you get closer to the woods, kinda like having your own wilderness field right at home :lol: I have found quite a few quartz type rocks as well as other interesting rocks on our property but so far nothing fluorescent even though I tried a few times at night. In addition to taking my UV lights out there at night I would also have a powerful regular LED flashlight so I can see where I am walking, then when I got to a spot I would want to check I'd turn off the regular flashlight and turn on the UV light.

Our area is not really known for having a lot of fluorescent type rocks, I did research and did see where a very few varieties might be found in some areas of our state like fluorite, but so far I have not found any myself so all the specimens I have as of now came from elsewhere. (it was still fun looking though, did see some other non-rock stuff glow under UV, one example: like bits of the nylon string from using a weed-trimmer :lol: which was neat to spot :lol:)

If you saw my very first post in this thread you saw the various UV lights I have like the UVbeast which is 365nm longwave and very powerful (always be careful to not accidently shine any UV light in anyone's eyes) as KT noted the 365nm longwave is much to be preferred over the cheaper 395nm UV that gives off too much purple visible light. Some minerals need the shortwave 254nm UV to glow but so far the UV LED technology has a ways to go for shortwave UV so for 254nm shortwave it's the tube version of lights with the special filters. As far as the 365 longwave UV I am very pleased with the UVbeast flashlight I got.

Any more questions just ask and KT and/or me can answer, though with KT being a retired geologist you will definitely get a more educated response from him whereas my responses, while still helpful, might tend to be somewhat more amateurish :lol: though I am still glad to help with what I do know :lol:
 
Thanks, glad you are enjoying this thread !

Any more questions just ask and KT and/or me can answer, though with KT being a retired geologist you will definitely get a more educated response from him whereas my responses, while still helpful, might tend to be somewhat more amateurish :lol: though I am still glad to help with what I do know :lol:

A lot of this info is available on the internet and practical experience is just as valuable as an education! Many people have been educated as geologists, but few have much practical experience with UV lamps. UV properties of minerals is not taught in any mineral course I ever attended. KT was lucky to find a couple of sites with abundant fluorescent rock near the Castle. Due to the orange fluorescence of one of the minerals in that rock, when He uses the LW UV lamp on that outcrop it looks like you are walking across a glowing lava bed! Ha ha. KT did do a quick hunt around the Castle Royal Grounds and the only thing that showed up was an orange fungi that fluoresced yellow! :laughing::laughing:

My best reference book is by Manuel Robbins, titled “Fluorescence - Gems and Minerals Under Ultraviolet Light”. I was lucky to meet the author while he was working on this book.
 
This is one of 2 threads for the same specimen as KT exceeded the file size and could not load 6 pictures in one thread. So these pics of what KT considers the obverse of the specimen.

This specimen is from Badkashan, Afghanistan and consists of pale lavender Spinel with Phlogopite and a white unknown carbonate. First pic is natural light. Second pic is UV LW 365 nm. Third pic is UV SW 254 nm.

The Spinel is strongly orange red in LW UV, but unresponsive in SW.
The Phlogopite is unresponsive in LW UV, but yellow in SW.
The carbonate is creamy white in LW UV, but unresponsive in SW.

Enjoy the pics!
 

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  • Spinel with Phlogopite on carbonate matrix Sar-e-Sang, Koksha Valley, Baddakshan, Afghanistan FO.JPG
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This is of the backside or reverse of the same specimen posted above and KT discovered the Royal File Name was too long. :laughing::laughing:

The reverse of the specimen has basically very little carbonate and mostly spinel and phlogopite.

First pic shows the natural light appearance.
Second pic is LW UV, where spinel is orange red, and phlogopite is unresponsive.
Third pic is SW UV, where spinel is unresponsive and phlogopite is yellow.

Enjoy the pics...Specimen hardly looks like the same sample front to back. It measures about 3.5" horizontally.
 

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Wow, really neat looking specimens KT !!!! :thumbsup:

That one looks kinda like you just pulled it out of the frozen ground and some frozen snow stuck to one side :lol:

It sure would be neat if we could pull specimens like those right out of our own yards :lol:
 
A lot of this info is available on the internet and practical experience is just as valuable as an education! Many people have been educated as geologists, but few have much practical experience with UV lamps........

Okay, how about inventing a multi-phase UV flashlight that oscillates between various UV wavelengths ?

.....maybe something like this ? :lol:
(just joking KT, saw that animated mineral and got that idea for an edit :lol:)
SHALcPN.gif
 
Okay, how about inventing a multi-phase UV flashlight that oscillates between various UV wavelengths ?

.....maybe something like this ? :lol:
(just joking KT, saw that animated mineral and got that idea for an edit :lol:)
SHALcPN.gif

Believe it or not, there has been and still is a lot of research into the invention of a new type of SW UV emitter, but up til now no one has been able to get past a tube situation…until a few years back LW UV was stuck in the same situation, until the invention of the CREE led and new types of LW UV filters, then several portable very powerful 365 nm flashlights appeared on the scene. But for now we just have to have patience until some innovative inventor finds the right combination! So, tho we may dream of such a lamp, it is not yet available! :laughing::laughing:
 
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