This piece was listed as just green beryl/emerald in matrix, but I thought I recognized the surrounding stuff to be scheelite, and I was right! It is about 5.5*5*1cm. It is incredibly bright under SW, and weak yellow under MW and LW. There are also a few specks of fluorite and something glowing purple under MW (apatite?).
I recently stumbled upon this specimen of hydroxylapatite. It's a small piece (2*2*1cm), but after seeing it's midwave reaction I couldn't pass up on it. The calcite has the typical brief phosphorescence too. It is slightly more green than I could get in the photo. On the bottom of the box all it says for locality is "kovd.". I think that means Kovdor, Russia, but I'm not 100% sure.
After much searching, I was finally able to acquire some Esperite and Hardystonite. In Europe, these pieces are hard to come by. It's not a big piece (160g/5.6oz), but it cost me less than shipping costs alone would have been from the US (€25). The listing just said "Esperite", and had no UV pictures, so I took a bit of a gamble, but it paid off big time. I love this piece a lot! It has bits of esperite on the back as well, and some really small but really pretty crystals of franklinite on the bottom.
It took some serious effort to get good pictures of it though. The UV picture was made with an exposure time of 2 seconds, shining the SW UV light on the calcite alone first to make it pop more. I also cheated a bit by using a 340nm light as well to make the hardystonite pop. Both the calcite and hardystonite would have been drowned out by the willemite otherwise. I tried to get the picture to look as much as possible the same as it looks to the naked eye.
When it arrived, it came with an interesting older label as well, which was not visible in the listing.
Do you think this from the Parker Shaft?
I got my hands on this amazing chunk of scheelite from Mittersill today. It's pretty hefty (1.25kg/2.65lbs). It glows incredibly brightly under SW. This piece is poor in molybdenum, and responds only weakly tan under midwave. There is some minor fluorapatite that does glow under MW.
Photos really don't do it justice, so I had to take a short clip of it. And before you say it, I know shortwave isn't exactly great for my skin, but I kept it short, I was wearing glasses, and I usually don't do this. It is also so bright I could hold the flashlight pretty far away. If you want some more photos let me know.
Another piece from the big haul of unlabeled minerals. I was unsure at first what the fluorescent mineral was, but seeing strong fizzing from a drop of HCl leaves little doubt about it being calcite. It also shows very brief orange-red phosphorescence, especially noticeable with my 405nm laser.
I have no ideas what causes this beautiful violet/purple color. I would love to know where it's from, but without a label...
I would appreciate any info you might be able to give on this.
This is a piece I got from a large collection that was donated to a local rock shop without any labels. I posted a bunch of others a while ago, but didn't realize I never posted a few more.
I suspect dolomite because of its weird curves and weak reaction to dilute HCl. There are a few spots of calcite around the edges too that fluoresce an orange-red I'm used to for calcite, but the main mineral glows a more pinkish-red. It glows brilliantly under 310nm MW, underwhelming under LW, very weak under SW.
Any ideas on what this is? Maybe even where it could be from? All info is welcome.
Pictures don't do the color justice. I have never seen a more deep crimson red in my life. I managed to get this decent size piece (189g/6.7oz), and despite a little bore hole on one side (visible in the 2nd angle) I'm extremely happy with it.
I believe the dark shiny non-fluorescent bits are biotite, there are a few tiny specs of scheelite as well, and under LW you can see a few yellow/orange fluorescent bit the seller claims are calcite, but I have my doubts about that one.
I bet you thought of calcite when you saw this picture, but no, this is baryte. Some baryte from this mine has a really unique orange UV reaction. In person it is even more orange than any calcite. Interestingly it glows strongest under 340nm.
I was lucky enough to swipe this lovely little piece of miserite a while back. Originally labeled as just Miserite in Wollastonite, there is definitely a bit more going on. I was able to determine the MW blue and violet colored mineral to be apatite, and the red to be calcite. There are some black needle crystals that don't fluoresce as well, which could be aegerine or the more interesting straczekite, but I have no way to determine that.
I love the contract between the SW and MW response of this specimen, and the explosion of color you get when combining them.
This is a specimen that was part of a large old collection I bought some time ago. It had no label at all. After a lot of research, the only thing I can imagine this being is molybdoscheelite, aka molybdenum-rich scheelite. I tried to find a possible locality for this specimen, but came up short. I couldn't find any that resembled this piece closely. I tried to get some closeup short, but I simply don't have the setup for it.
Let me know if you think this could be something else, or if you agree, or where this could be from.
I got a 340nm UV flashlight a few days ago, and of course the first thing I did was look at my entire collection under this new light. Most rocks that glow under 365nm still glow well under 340nm, and a few that needed 310nm to really shine glow great under 340nm too. A major advantage over 365nm is that it shows dust and other grime way less, potentially making it a good alternative for LW displays.
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Of my challenger cave terlingue-type calcites, about half of them turned yellow under 340nm. Interestingly those were mainly the ones that were the most pink under 365nm and white under SW/MW.
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The 340nm works surprisingly well on agrellite and powellite, being about as bright as under 310nm.
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Surprisingly, my Afghan kunzite favours the SW/MW blue color under 340nm, rather than the 365nm orange color, just not as strong as under 310nm.
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For the manganese-activated calcites, most that don't glow well under 365nm aren't much better under 340nm.
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All my ruby and spinel glows significantly weaker under 340nm. Most pieces of sodalite glow slightly weaker than under 365nm. All my Sicilian aragonite lost some of their vivid color, becoming slightly more dull.
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A while ago I bought this lovely quartz cluster from a seller at a mineral expo. I have no idea why I decided to shine my UV lamp in this, because I usually skip the quartz. They dug this material themselves, listed it just as Quartz on Limonite matrix. At the time I had no idea what caused this fluorescence. Later I found a different seller advertising material from the same place as Quartz with Cerussite, but after some research I found this highly unlikely. The color ranges from strong yellow to light blue, and definitely originates from the quartz crystals themselves. After more research, petroleum inclusions seem like the only reasonable cause.
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Ignore the purple reflections in the SW pic, that's the lamp. I tried to get some closeups too, but didn't get the best quality on them.
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What do you think, did I get it right?
I came across this specimen of Aquamarine on matrix at a local rock shop, and got a big surprise when I shined my SW light on it. I'm not a geologist, but I did my best to try to identify all the minerals. The light blue fluorescent bit looks like a square rod that goes all the way through the specimen (Orthoclase/Microcline?). Then some nice purple glowing bits (Albite?). The non-fluorescent bits are mostly Quartz and of course the Aquamarine. There are a few specs of yellow fluorescent Apatite in there as well.
Let me know what you think about my identifications.
While visiting a local mineral wholesaler I noticed these pieces while shining my LW UV light in a large bin of raw Dumortierite from Madagascar. They fluorescence a strong neon red under LW, weak orange under MW and light blue under SW. I believe the SW response is from the dumortierite itself, but the red and orange seem to come from the matrix. I tried to do a hardness test, kept getting around 7, probably quartz. Fluomin does mention a Chromium-based red fluorescence in dumortierite, but I couldn't find any more information about it anywhere. It's not calcite, as the color is too red, no phosphorescence and it's too hard.
Any clues on what is going on here? Any info is welcome!
I obtained this amazing piece of Adamite at a local expo recently. It is absolutely stunning, good size (8.5x4.5cm), and glows incredibly bright under all wavelengths. I especially love how shortwave shows all the little details of the crystals so beautifully. I was very lucky to scoop this piece up for a very good price. Definitely gonna be in my collection for a long long time. Last pic with 1 euro coin and on 1cm square paper for size.
I recently picked up a big collection with tons of stuff, many fluorescents. This is one of my favorites. Unfortunately the label only says "mimetite", no locality. Photo taken in MW, no fluorescence in either LW or SW. If you have any idea where this could be from, let me know.
I love this piece for its colors. The zircon crystals aren't the pretty broken up though, which just means I got it for a good price.
I hadn't heard of this mineral until I saw it pop up locally, picked it up for a steal. It weighs 173g and is about 6x6x5cm. Bright white under LW, teal green under MW and light blue under SW. I assume it's mostly activated by organics.