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

GKL · Jul 2, 2022

KingTotsalot said:
One thing KT has learned down through the years, check everything for fluorescence! So don’t give up, you just might come across something!

Thanks KT, I'm not discouraged as I realize some areas fluorescent minerals are simply not as easy to find, I still like checking to be sure, it's like detecting in areas already hunted, I still have fun and enjoy the challenge of trying to find good finds others missed in the past :lol:

KingTotsalot · Jul 2, 2022

GKL said:
Thanks KT, I'm not discouraged as I realize some areas fluorescent minerals are simply not as easy to find, I still like checking to be sure, it's like detecting in areas already hunted, I still have fun and enjoy the challenge of trying to find good finds others missed in the past

A bit like visiting an old favorite park site while MDing! HA HA

Well, here is a goodie that arrived today, on KT's Royal Birthday! :dingding:

A nice present, along with the new Royal Rock Breaker KT is working on, and the BBQ Chicken KT will prepare on the Royal Grill this evening!

This was purchased and the seller stated it was from Mexico, pretty darn vague location, like saying quartz is from Brazil! :lol:

Anyway, KT did some investigation and this seller is the ONLY one saying that is where it is from. KT has collected nodular barite before from a location near Lawton, Cherokee Co., OK. When this arrived it not only looked the same but had some of the same red mud on it! KT did search the internet for nodular barite in Mexico and found one location, but the pictures of those specimens looked nothing like this sample! KT did find a rock shop in Lawton that sells these things online and I bought 3 whole ones for $9.00 plus shipping. I will crack two of them open and see if they have the internal fluorescent banding this one has. If so, then I am calling this one from Lawton, OK, NOT Mexico! HA HA.

Picture 1 is an exterior view, natural light and Pic 2 is the same with the LWUV 365nm light. Picture 3 is an interior view, natural light, and picture 4 is the same with LWUV 365nm light. Even the interior that appears dark fluoresces a dark brown, but is washed out in the photo by the bright yellow band! ADDED: Picture 5 is of the broken rim of the nodule, 10X, natural light.
Picture 6 displays the fluorescence by LWUV 365nm filtered light.

Enjoy the pictures!

KingTotsalot · Jul 6, 2022

Book KT owned when He was a young kinglet.....

And to this day, KT does not know what happened to it! So, another one arrived in the mail today! It took a long journey to get to the Castle...From Wisconsin, to Memphis Distribution Center, sent by them to Tacoma, Washington Distribution Center, then back to Memphis again and finally to Little Rock, Mabelvale, and the Royal Mailbox! :laughing:

This little book, published in 1964 by Ultra Violet Products, Inc. in California, was written by Robert Jones, Jr. and published in 1964. KT owned one shortly after its publication. Now it is a valuable resource returned to KT's Royal Library and am certain it will be well read again! :lol:

It is 100 pages in length and contains historic pictures of the mines and quite a few color photographs of fluorescent minerals.

Anyway, KT had listed several other books on fluorescence earlier in this Thread, so He felt this Famous Locality book was well worth listing for any fluorescent mineral collector out there in the Royal Realm! This time it cost His Majesty $20 plus postage, not bad for a classic out-of-print book!

KingTotsalot · Jul 9, 2022

Here is something I collected years ago and .......

just yesterday discovered it was fluorescent! :laughing:

When working, KT made many trips to the Crater of Diamonds State Park to guide college mineralogy groups and classes on a tour. One of the last times His Majesty was there, He did a bit of collecting for Himself...sorry not for diamonds! :laughing:

But KT had noted some white clay veins that cut the diamond-bearing host rock and decided to get a few pieces of it. Later when back to the Castle, He used the Royal Small trimmer to break that material down and under the Royal Microscope KT noted some lathe-shaped gray crystals and some free standing gray crystals. Photographs were taken of those specimens.

Yesterday, KT was picking through some miscellaneous materials and came across samples of the clay vein again...but this time He had a fluorescent light in hand. To his surprise, something in the white clay was fluorescing. So KT dug out some of the grains and a matrix piece, and took more pictures this morning.

So there are 3 pictures of this mineral, I presume to be barite, barium sulfate, as it is a common mineral in the heavy mineral suite when panning for diamonds. The first 3 pictures at 15 X simply show the crystal forms of the gray barite in the clay. The next 2 pictures show the grains KT recovered and their fluorescence in LWUV 354nm. And the last 2 pictures show gray barite grains in the clay host, and their fluorescence. In the last picture, you will see that the barite has 2 colors of fluorescence.....yellowish and orange. KT did see a loose fluorescent grain that fluoresces orange on each end and is not fluorescent in the middle!

Enjoy the pics!

KingTotsalot · Jul 10, 2022

Here is a free fluorescent specimen....

sent to His Majesty by one of His eBay sellers in a package with other pieces KT purchased.

The piece is sodalite syenite that came from Mont St. Hilaire, Quebec, Canada. The photos are 2" across on the horizontal distance (FOV), so it is a miniature. When KT received it and unpacked it, it was covered with fl. blue lint! Must have been kept in a box with loose cotton as padding. A good scrub down with soap and water got rid of that problem. First picture is in natural light and second is in filtered LWUV 365nm. Some specimens of this mineral also fluoresce red in SW but not this one. The feldspar cleavages were reflecting a lot of blue light to the camera, that is why KT used a UV filter (lens from a pair of blue blocker sun glasses) between the specimen and the camera lens.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures....this specimen is being cataloged this afternoon and going in the Royal Fluorescent Collection! :yes:

KingTotsalot · Jul 11, 2022

look back up at post #422 in this thread!

KT had doubted the locality of this "mexican barite nodule" in that post, so His Majesty managed to find a dealer on eBay who had some barite nodules from Lawton, Cherokee Co., Oklahoma that looked like these. KT invested in a few of these nodules and they arrived today. Not only do they look on the surface identical to the "mexican" nodule, but upon breaking and a fluorescence check with a 365nm LW lamp they have the same reaction. This confirms the real location and the original eBay seller either did not want anyone to know where they came from, or was given a bogus locale.

Enjoy the pictures!

KingTotsalot · Jul 14, 2022

wondering what has happened to GKL??

He told His Majesty that he was busy, but KT has not heard from him in nearly a week! Me thinks that is TOO busy! :laughing:

Anyway....Today KT received two specimens from the Franklin Mine in New Jersey that He had been waiting on for a bit over a week! These are nice!

The first specimen consists of Bustamite with Willemite from the Buckwheat Dump, Franklin, NJ. The first picture is that specimen in natural light, and the second picture is the specimen in SWUV 254nm. In that second image, KT used both Royal SW lights, one positioned at 2 o'clock and the other at 7 o'clock, combined output of 8 watts. The bustamite fluoresces a deep pinkish red, and the willemite is its typical SW bright green. FOV=1.5".

The second specimen is Hardystonite and Willemite. First image of it is in natural light. The second image was taken in filtered LWUV 365nm. The hardystonite is a deep fluorescent blue and the willemite typical LW green. This specimen is from the type locality. FOV=3". 2nd one of these in the Royal Collection and glad to get it.

Enjoy the pictures!

GKL · Jul 16, 2022

Wow KT

I get busy for a few extra days and find out you really stocked up on many more really neat specimens :thumbsup:

......you might need to add on to your "museum" room soon at that pace :lol:

Those are some extra neat specimens indeed though, I enjoyed seeing such a unique variety, thanks for posting them !

Hey, as far as that book you got that you had as a kid, (Nature's Hidden Rainbows) if you would have thought of it back in 1972 you could have gotten it for just $2.95 (+5% tax and 30 cents shipping & handling) :laughing:

Check it out on this order page I found online:

https://www.fomsnj.org/PDF/PickingTable/PT13-1.pdf

just thought, you'd get a laugh out of that, but congrats on finding a copy of a book that old ! :thumbsup:

Guess maybe that was part of your beginning interest in geology, that book should bring back some memories as you read it again after all those years !

KingTotsalot · Jul 16, 2022

GKL said:
Wow KT I get busy for a few extra days and find out you really stocked up on many more really neat specimens ......you might need to add on to your "museum" room soon at that pace

Those are some extra neat specimens indeed though, I enjoyed seeing such a unique variety, thanks for posting them !

Hey, as far as that book you got that you had as a kid, (Nature's Hidden Rainbows) if you would have thought of it back in 1972 you could have gotten it for just $2.95 (+5% tax and 30 cents shipping & handling)

Check it out on this order page I found online:

https://www.fomsnj.org/PDF/PickingTable/PT13-1.pdf

just thought, you'd get a laugh out of that, but congrats on finding a copy of a book that old !

Guess maybe that was part of your beginning interest in geology, that book should bring back some memories as you read it again after all those years !

Yes, and that book contains a lot of color photographs! That is what makes them so expensive today! KT has read a little over half of it now and it has been quite enjoyable. The fellow who wrote it collected at the dumps when collecting was in its prime time and tells which dumps originated from what shafts in the mine...even tells some of the levels where certain minerals came from! He has a few hand drawn maps showing the dump locations, but even then some of them were being destroyed by urbanization. A thoroughly interesting read!

Yep, KT has been keeping busy as you discovered! :laughing:

And His Majesty thought you might be surprized! :lol:

But guess what!? I am posting another series of photographs today on a specimen that arrived at the Castle this morning....so KT is not slacking off! LOL. And don't forget to go read His most recent thread in the Fix or repair it yourself section about needing a 3rd hand to take pictures with the Chinese USB led microscope! Hope to read your comments soon!

KingTotsalot · Jul 16, 2022

A fluorescent specimen from Sweden!

This arrived today at the Castle in the US Mail. When KT opened the very well wrapped package He found this specimen, and it had the sharpest edges on it, like a piece of broken obsidian. So immediately KT took it to the Royal Workshop and with a lightweight tack hammer started to remove those sharp edges. Even with only light tapping, His Majesty spalled off two pieces suitable for t/n specimens and managed to get the sample to where it could be handled without being cut!

The specimen is from Norra Karr, Kaxtorp, Granna, Jonkoping County, Sweden, and Mindat.org has a nice picture of a specimen that generally looks like this one in the photos of catapleiite from that site. My acquaintance, Manuel Robbins, mentions this locality in Sweden in his book as only 1 of 3 sites for fl. catapleiite, but he does not mention the associated sodalite. KT can only guess he never checked it under LWUV 365nm.

This specimen consists of Catapleiite (fl. green SW), Microcline (weakly fl. red SW), and Sodalite (fl. orange LW). There are 6 pictures. The first 3 are of the larger piece, FOV=4", and the second 3 are of the better of the 2 small specimens. In order of appearance: Natural light, SWUV 254nm (using both lights for a total of 8 watts) and LWUV 365nm; finally the smaller specimen, FOV=1.25", natural light SWUV 254nm (again both SW lamps) and then LWUV 365nm for the last picture. Both LW images were taken with a UV filter to cut down the blue UV reflections.

His Majesty was so enthralled by the specimen that He forgot to wash it, consequently all the dust on the LW pictures...sorry about that! HA HA

Anyway, enjoy seeing these specimens!

KingTotsalot · Jul 18, 2022

A new specimen from New Jersey arrived today!

KT was dancing for several reasons this afternoon. And one of them was this arrival of a new specimen from the Sterling Hill Mine, Sussex Co., New Jersey. This has a nice color combination as you shall see!

It consists of Microcline feldspar with a bit of calcite associated with it. From many locations the feldspars fluoresce a deep red color, but from this site the microcline is a nice fairly bright blue, while the calcite is a bright red, both in SWUV 254nm. KT did have to use both his lamps, one at 1:00 and the other at 7:00 to get it to show strongly enough for a picture. The piece is small, only 1 inch across at the lower edge of the images.

Anyway enough about the "technical" stuff, we want to see the "fireworks"! :laughing:

And so you shall! Enjoy!

KingTotsalot · Jul 21, 2022

And here are another two new arrivals via the Royal Mailbox today!

The first specimen is consists of hydrozincite and calcite from the Callahan Mine, Brookville, Maine. The first picture is in natural light and the 2nd in SWUV 254nm. KT placed 1 4 watt lamp at 1:00 and the other 4 watt lamp at 7:00 to get good fluorescent response. The blue is the hydrozincite and the red is the calcite. Specimen is large handsize.

The second specimen was a free gift (KT always likes those) and consists of sodalite syenite from Red Hill, Morltonborough, New Hampshire. It is a small hand sized piece. The first picture is in natural light, the 2nd in unfiltered LWUV 365nm and the third pic is in filtered LWUV 365nm. The filter is from a broken pair of hunter's orange blue blocker clip ons, held between the specimen and the camera lens. Enjoy the pictures!

KingTotsalot · Jul 22, 2022

Have patience with KT...everyone!

KT has several more interesting fluorescent specimens being shipped to the Castle, but it is expected they may take a week or more before arriving! :laughing:

One package that came from Wisconsin in the past month, arrived at Memphis, and they forwarded it to Tacoma, Washington State, before it came back and arrived here 5 days late! Then another package arrived at the Little Rock Clearing house and was shipped to Searcy, then returned to LRPO before arriving 2 days late. It used to be that the USPO took a lot of pride in their shipping efforts, but now KT just heard that the USPO contracted with UPS to handle most of their packages! Me thinks that is a sad sign of the times. It is pretty obvious that the USPO is in a serious state of decline.

KT gets loads of junk mail in the Royal Mailbox every day! Me thinkest that if they would charge this !!!! with a first class mailing cost, then not only would it drastically decline, but they would have time to do the actual sorting and mail delivery more efficiently. With those greatly decreased commercial rates, and them insisting that postage needs to go up, it is obvious they are in a money, time, and efficiency crunch. Yet you go into the local USPO branch and they have 1 person working with 3 other scales and serving stations open cause no one is there!

Obviously private businesses like UPS and Fedex have this figured out, but the USPO does not anymore. KT will now get off His Royal Soapbox! :laughing:

KingTotsalot · Jul 28, 2022

These arrived today in the Castle's mail box!

Two interesting items:

The first pair of pictures are of a septarian nodule slab...it is 5.5" across. It is from Muddy Creek, Ordersville, Kane Co., Utah. The side photographed has
been polished. Septarian nodules are the State Rock of Utah! They are basically like a dried out mudball that when drying crackled internally and then the open spaces were filled with aragonite and yellow calcite. Both the aragonite and the calcite fluoresce, different colors, in LWUV 365nm. The aragonite fluoresces brown and the calcite a greenish yellow. First picture is in natural light and second is in Long Wave.

The second pair of pictures is of an aragonite heart-shaped candy bowl from Morocco. I am certain that is where the bowl was made but not sure where the aragonite is from as aragonite is a pretty common mineral.

Anyway, the first pic of the bowl is in natural light, and it is 6" across and the second picture shows fluorescent colors of tan, white and even some minor blue. Difficult to photograph due to its concave nature.....any way you place a light you get a reflection from a ceiling light or the camera flash! This is also fluorescent in LWUV 365nm.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

KingTotsalot · Jul 29, 2022

Both of these specimens respond to LWUV 365nm light. Both specimens are also miniatures...fit into a 2" cube box.

The first pair of pictures are of Afghanite crystals on matrix rock from Badakhashan, Afghanistan. The color is normal light is deep royal blue, and in LWUV 365nm is orange!

The second pair of pictures is of Deweylite, a poorly defined magnesium rich silicate mineral that is often found in serpentinized mafic rocks. This specimen is from the Haines & Kibblehouse Quarry (?), Lancaster County, PA.
The first image is in natural light, and the second is again in 365nm. The fluorescent color is yellowish cream, and KT had to use a blue blocking filter to get the appropriate fluorescent color.

Enjoy these images!

GKL · Jul 29, 2022

Wow KT, definitely more unique specimens !!!!

With all your new specimens it's getting to where calling your collection room a "museum" is getting to be less of just a funny comment and more of a reality, though it still is good humor anyhow to call it that :laughing:

(all in fun :lol:

)

KingTotsalot · Jul 29, 2022

GKL said:
Wow KT, definitely more unique specimens !!!!

With all your new specimens it's getting to where calling your collection room a "museum" is getting to be less of just a funny comment and more of a reality, though it still is good humor anyhow to call it that (all in fun )

KT is having to shuffle things around to make room for the growing Royal Collection! But the Castle has many rooms, so it is mostly a matter of what to keep, what to give away, what to give to the Church for yard sales, etc.
:lol:

KingTotsalot · Jul 30, 2022

These arrived by Royal Post yesterday but KT just did not have the time to get them photographed until this afternoon.

The first specimen, pics 1 and 2, is a sample of Clinohedrite, Willemite, and Hardystonite from the Franklin Mine, Sussex County, New Jersey. The specimen is a miniature, and the first pic is in natural light. The second pic is in SWUV 254nm, taken with two lamps, one positioned at 12 and the other at 6. Total of 8 watts SW. The specimen kind of reminds His Majesty in UV of a picture of California taken from outer space at night! HA HA Just the general shape, of course.

The second specimen is also from the Franklin Mine and is Tremolite intergrown with non-fluorescent calcite. It is a large miniature, and the first pic is in natural light. The second pic was taken with the SW lamp at 12 and displays the elongate crystals of fluorescing tremolite nicely.

Finally, but not the least, is a miniature of Pollucite from the Emmons Quarry, Uncle Tom Mtn., Greenwood, Oxford Co., Maine. First pic is in natural light and the second pic is in SWUV, with taken with two SW lamps, one at 12 and the other at 6, for a total of 8 watts of SWUV. Pollucite is rarely fluorescent, but when it is it has been described at yellowish white, but this specimen looks more pale greenish pastel yellow.

Enjoy the pics!

GKL · Aug 4, 2022

KingTotsalot said:
These arrived by Royal Post yesterday but KT just did not have the time to get them photographed until this afternoon.

The first specimen, pics 1 and 2, is a sample of Clinohedrite, Willemite, and Hardystonite from the Franklin Mine, Sussex County, New Jersey. The specimen is a miniature, and the first pic is in natural light. The second pic is in SWUV 254nm, taken with two lamps, one positioned at 12 and the other at 6. Total of 8 watts SW. The specimen kind of reminds His Majesty in UV of a picture of California taken from outer space at night! HA HA Just the general shape, of course.

The second specimen is also from the Franklin Mine and is Tremolite intergrown with non-fluorescent calcite. It is a large miniature, and the first pic is in natural light. The second pic was taken with the SW lamp at 12 and displays the elongate crystals of fluorescing tremolite nicely.

Finally, but not the least, is a miniature of Pollucite from the Emmons Quarry, Uncle Tom Mtn., Greenwood, Oxford Co., Maine. First pic is in natural light and the second pic is in SWUV, with taken with two SW lamps, one at 12 and the other at 6, for a total of 8 watts of SWUV. Pollucite is rarely fluorescent, but when it is it has been described at yellowish white, but this specimen looks more pale greenish pastel yellow.

Enjoy the pics!

Wow KT, not that the other specimens aren't nice too, (the various shades of blue, and various shades of green are indeed neat), but that multi-color one looks like a showpiece specimen ! :thumbsup:

KingTotsalot · Aug 4, 2022

GKL said:
Wow KT, not that the other specimens aren't nice too, (the various shades of blue, and various shades of green are indeed neat), but that multi-color one looks like a showpiece specimen !

It is definitely nice, but not a big one…the box it is in is only 2” x 2”.

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

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