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Fluorescent Minerals and Stones

ohada

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May 2, 2008
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Hey members,

Few days ago I went to a big store that sells crystals and minerals (a huge collection of many kinds), hoping to find some nice fluorescent stuff.
I took a BluRay and a green laser pointers, and got the seller's permission to wander around in his store and shine every crystal and stone I see.

(On a side story - he wanted to try the BluRay 170mw laser, so I gave him thinking he's gonna shine it at a crystal. What did he do? Try to shine it in his friend's eye!!!  :mad: Luckily he missed by a single centimeter, otherwise it would have been an unfortunate incident... I immediately grabbed it back from him. Phew...).

So I spent there about an hour and found only very few minerals and stones that fluorescent, for some reason I expected more. There weren't any expensive gems in this store like diamonds and rubies, only cheap and semi-cheap stones.

This is what I finally bought (all of them fluorescent under 405nm BluRay, except the Ruby stone):

Top Middle: A quartz partially covered with white minerals, possibly calcium according to the seller. The white minerals fluoresces beautifully a pink orange color, and keeps shining a short period of time after the laser light is gone, like glow in the dark signs (only shorter period). See the videos I made.

Top Left: An unknown rock, it was in a shelf with a bunch of Quartz crystals but the seller didn't know exactly what it was. This fluoresces like the white mineral on the Quartz, even better. See the videos I made.

Top Right: A "Ruby" stone (obviously not the expensive Ruby gem). This is fluorescent with green laser, see photo below.

Bottom Left and Middle: Two amber stones, fluorescent a nice strong white color. See photo below.

Bottom Right: An Agate stone, fluoresces a strong dark pink color.

all_crystals.jpg


This is the "Ruby" stone. This stone has these "veins" that if the laser is shined on them the stone glows in orange (bottom right), and if the green laser is pointed between them it shines in green and the veins show as red, making a very strange and nice look (top right). The bottom left is shining partially on a vein, giving something in the middle.
ruby_green_laser.jpg


These are the amber stones, shining nice white under a BluRay laser (the big one is white with slight touch of olive green):
ambers_bluray.jpg


This is the agate stone, shined once with a single BluRay, and then with two BluRays. In reality the color is a strong pink and not orange.
agate_bluray.jpg


And finally the videos.

The first two are of the "unknown" rock, one in a dark room, the second in a lighted room. In reality the color is more pink than orange, but that's what the camera gets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnn3Ikieevs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AS8Agvmctc

Videos of the other stones, in dark and in lighted room:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGsqYYS4xbw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAA1x8HGrSU

Enjoy everyone!

If anyone has photos or videos of more fluorescent stones and crystals I would be glad if you post them,

Ohad
 





daguin

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Mar 29, 2008
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Fluorescence is often very dim and/or subtle. The fluorescence can be overpowered by a high powered laser. Go back with a low powered violet laser (<20mW). You could also try simply de-focusing your laser (or remove the lens completely) to dissipate the light. Also, go back at the end of the business day (or the beginning) to see if the owner will turn down (or off) the lights for you. In the field, fluorescent hunters carry a heavy, black, plastic "yard bag" with them to put over themselves , their light, and the specimen to be able to see the glow.

Peace,
dave
 
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Thats pretty cool, I cant find much in my house that floreses, how much do those cost though? It would be cool to buy a hand full of them and put them in a glass bowl in a pitch black room watching them glow like that.
 

ohada

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May 2, 2008
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Thanks Dave, I'll take your advice and go hunt some more in the evening when it's darker and I'll un-focus the lasers. The owner will probably not like shutting the lights, but I can try asking why not.

Quote from lamborgini8:
how much do those cost though?

The small stones cost about $2 each, the bigger rocks cost me about $10 each.
 

ohada

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May 2, 2008
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You may find this thread interesting as well now that you're into the "other" hobby.  Smiley

http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1235504751/6#6

Thanks CC, awesome colors in those photos!

This makes the second "other" hobby I got because of this forum, I have a new recent hobby of metals collection following a Galium GB arrange by rocketparrotlet user:
http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1238538495

I already ordered Titanium, Niobium, Tantalum and Tungsten in various shapes and sizes.

And not to forget all the lasers I bought through LPF and the stuff I bought from DX after I knew it here...

This forum is simply a financial menace, someone should put a warning sign in front of it !!!
 





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