blue-ray laser with rocks and minrals

[bitrat]

Great info -thanks to everyone - newbie on this forum.
In my rockhound days did a bit of prospecting with long wave/short wave uv lights.
Seoul is right - many minerals only fluoresce under shorter wavelength uv, and I'm not sure I'd want to play with a shortwave (less than 350 nm) laser.....pretty dangerous I'd think - OTOH, you could make "tan tatoos" by shining one in a pattern on your skin! ;*)-

 

[shadowhound]

so would the "Crown upgrade 400mW green laser torch/adjustable/waterproof" work for looking for minarals that glow ? its just hard finding a short wave torch

 

[geoffy0404]

well what exactly will fluoresce under long wave and short wave, whats the actual difference between short and long and why is short more expensive and rare then long?

 

[SOG]

Yeah, I also want to know what will fluoresce under 405nm .... I found not so many?

 

[chipdouglas]

calcite glows internally orange under 405nm. if you want to know which rocks do.. then start a new thread with the title "which rocks fluorese".... hopefully member daguin will see it. he is very knowledgable in this area, and i can vouch for his giant rock collection lol.

Michael.

 

[daguin]

Yeah, I also want to know what will fluoresce under 405nm .... I found not so many?

MANY minerals will fluoresce under the 405nm light. If a mineral will fluoresce under long-wave UV, then it will probably react to the 405nm laser

The problem most people run into is our mindless addiction to higher and higher powered lasers.

Sure a mineral will react to the light of a 12X bluray.
Unfortunately, the fluorescent reaction is MUCH weaker than the "blaze" of the bluray light from the laser itself.

In the above example, you cannot see the fluorescence. All you can see is the laser light. In essence, "you cannot see the forest for the trees."

Unless you are shining a significant distance from yourself (and I cannot really imagine much of a reason to do so while hunting minerals), keep the output of your 405nm under 50mW.
The one I use while "glow worming" is about 20mW.

A second problem is simply that there are many more minerals that do NOT react, than ones that do react.
Especially in "the wild", only a very small percentage of the rocks you hit with the light will react.
The obvious exception to that "rule" is if you are in a mine of some sort that has a significant percentage of fluorescent mineral in it
In that case, it can look like Alladin's cave :drool:

Peace,
dave

 

[SOG]

HI Dave! Thanks for clear things out! Have never thought the laser will be so bright that it will cover the fluoresce!

Um... now I wonder how to turn down the power... I got 2 from you.. maybe
I can somehow turn one of the power down, but looking at the reflex's manual, it doesn't seems easy... um...

But how bright is a 20mw 405nm?

But I found unscrew the lens from the laser, already greatly reduces the output power... but that is still too strong?


P.S. I found one rocks that will turn very very bright red under 405, it's Ruby (but I am not sure if it's a fake ruby or not...)

MANY minerals will fluoresce under the 405nm light. If a mineral will fluoresce under long-wave UV, then it will probably react to the 405nm laser

The problem most people run into is our mindless addiction to higher and higher powered lasers.

Sure a mineral will react to the light of a 12X bluray.
Unfortunately, the fluorescent reaction is MUCH weaker than the "blaze" of the bluray light from the laser itself.

In the above example, you cannot see the fluorescence. All you can see is the laser light. In essence, "you cannot see the forest for the trees."

Unless you are shining a significant distance from yourself (and I cannot really imagine much of a reason to do so while hunting minerals), keep the output of your 405nm under 50mW.
The one I use while "glow worming" is about 20mW.

A second problem is simply that there are many more minerals that do NOT react, than ones that do react.
Especially in "the wild", only a very small percentage of the rocks you hit with the light will react.
The obvious exception to that "rule" is if you are in a mine of some sort that has a significant percentage of fluorescent mineral in it
In that case, it can look like Alladin's cave :drool:

Peace,
dave