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FrozenGate by Avery

Fluorescent Minerals and stuff - Blu-Ray & IR

Hi CC
Yep - 405nm ain't even UV!  It's close to longwave, but not quite there (has to be under 400nm to qualify).  But it's so bright (and close) that it causes things to FL anway.  Greenland minerals are especially reactive to even just blue light, so they glow like a banshee with the 405nm LD.

Shortwave UV (254nm) causes the most spectacular reponse in minerals; and there are hundreds that are fluorescent under SW but not LW - many many more.  If you want to truly enjoy my hobby, you need SW.

That said - there still are lots of minerals that will glow many different colors under LW (And the 405nm LD).

  • Uranium minerals - they will mostly glow green; a very common color for uranium
  • Sodalite - orange (some call it yellow but it's really orange)
  • Wernerite - yellow (really yellow)
  • Ruby - bright red (look at jewelry stores - they'll have bluish lights to show off their gems; gemstones often look best under a blue light)
  • Diamond - yellow, blue, ???
  • Calcite - white, orange, yellow and lots of colors
  • Fluorite - blue, especially a variety called "Rogerly Fluorite" (from England) - it even changes color in the sunlight.
The color a mineral will glow is not considered reliable.  Many minerals will glow different colors due to the activator in them (or not glow at all).  Thus calcite from Franklin NJ glows bright orange, while calcite from Mexico might glow white.

Most of my minerals do best under SW - but LW has its place.  Note that SW brings out a different color than LW in many minerals.  But the neat thinkg (for me) is that I can use this LD in the broad daylight to prospect for minerals in Greenland instead of waiting for (a very short) nighttime and using my UV light.

Mark
 





My BR is waiting for me in the mailbox. I can't wait to get home and fire it up! :D
 
Absolutely fascinating. Just awesome. Brings a whole new world of bright fun to me!! I love it. This is my new favorite thread.
 
Thanks for a very informative reply Pirateo40 [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

I'm told that the 28 acres my wife and I just purchased up North is riddled with Calcite pipes. The area is known for amethysts, mica, asbestos and uranium, so I'll be turning my Miloš Blu-Ray into a wide-beam flashlight to scour the stream beds after the massive thaw underway. You've given me an awesome tool for prospecting here and I thank you for showing us yet another fantastic use for these lasers that fascinate us so.

Cheers! CC
 
Glad y'all are enjoying it!  But it's such a pity that we're gonna have all these blind scorpions running around now!  ;)

CC - calcite is quite unpredictable in its glow; I wish you luck!  When you say up north, perhaps you mean Canada?  (wiating for the snow to melt, etc)  If so, there are some fabulous spots in Canada for collecting fluorescent minerals.  Mount St Hilaire, the Kipawa Complex, Bay of Fundy, and I'm sure lots others....

For folks in the NE - Frankln NJ is a mecca for glow hounds - brightest minerals on earth.

Out west - tons of old mines, AZ, Utah, CA to name a few...

Europe - Norway (Langensundfjord), Sweden (Langban), Russia (Kola), England - fluorite mines (Rogerly), etc

Just naming a few famous areas for those interested....  Of course, my faovrite is Greenland.  The area I go is a famous geological complex, untouched by civilization.  And - whereever I point my UV light something glows.  Now with my Blu-Ray I'll light up the entire mountain from the valley :)
Mark

(pic below with SW UV)
 

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I have diamonds that fluoresce in blue and a few that glow yellow. Syn. ruby glows a deep red, and some sapphires glow red/ purple. One sapphire I tried that belongs to a friend of my old Gemology Prof. glowed orange. I have pink/ purple glow in sugalite.
Heres a very cool one though, I have two diamonds that glow from fluorescence and phosphorescence they are blue with violet laser on, then dimmer, but glow yellow/ green after it's turned off (phosphorescence). One of these, (I will not part with, BTW), is 1 ct and V VSI1 color M . The second I found to do this is near 1/2 ct fine white SI1 and I have offered to sell at $1100.00 mounted in a white gold bezel on a small white gold chain, so its ready to wear.
I want to collect more glowing minerals, I have found a lot of chalcedony agate and some fluorite, which glows yellow as well.

I love the BR for fluorescent discoverys, and I have sources of all types of UV lamps and own UV lamps in A, B & C Long wave short wave and germicidal , 250 nm -Glenn
 

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Pirateo40 said:
CC - calcite is quite unpredictable in its glow; I wish you luck! When you say up north, perhaps you mean Canada? (wiating for the snow to melt, etc) If so, there are some fabulous spots in Canada for collecting fluorescent minerals. Mount St Hilaire, the Kipawa Complex, Bay of Fundy, and I'm sure lots others...
Click to expand...

I'm in Canada indeed, and my land is just outside of Wilberforce, Ontario. I'm told that the area is part of the rim of a massive ancient impact crater and there's an abandoned Uranium mine on the 100acre parcel south of ours, so I'm pretty sure I'll find a few interesting things lying about. Especially if I can locate a calcite pipe. Time will tell.

Cheers, CC
 
CC - After Greenland, Canada is my next favorite country for FL minerals.  The vast areas in the north middle and west are virtually unexplored - lemme know if you find anything???
You need a SW lamp!!

Scopeguy - great UV shot!  Is that a Nichia 365nm LED (the 2w model?)
 
Pirateo40 said:
You need a SW lamp!!
Click to expand...

Methinks you're right! How would this one do? It's pretty reasonable at $50 and they sell UV goggles for $20 as well. Would 4W be bright enough to scan the ground or only good for close ups and photography?

Thanks, CC
 
CC - the unit you are considering is ok, but...  I guess in the lingo of this board it would be sort of like buying one of those red laser pointers sold by hundreds of companies for $5.  You would tire quickly and yearn for something with a little power (like a 200mw cannon).  

UV dissapates quickly over distance - so you need a lot of watts to push the light out to where it is productive.  Plus - the rocks you will find will be large most likely and a little unit like that will only light up a portion of it.  That unit is very much an entry leval light, one that will lose its appeal quickly.

There are several companies that make lights - for a wide range in price.  You would have to spend anywhere from $150 to $500 for a decent field lamp which can also be used for photography.  A couple of companies I would recommmend investigating are "UV Systems" (the cadiallac of lights) and "Way Too Cool" (low-end lamps).  There's even an outfit in Canada - UV Tools - that makes lights.

But - given the handiness of folks on this board, it's not that hard to make your own.  Sort of like making a laser, but different components.  I've used off-the-shelf battery powered fluorescent lamps, torn them apart and installed germicidal bulbs and a filter - and voila - you have a UV light - 13w to 26w.  Bayco makes a neat fluorescent worklight that can easily be adapted to a UV light with a few modifications.  I've seen lights in Sears and Walmart which could easily be modified.  All you need is a source for the Hoya filter material.  I would be glad to help anyone out in that area; I know some tricks in getting Hoya glass and could show you how....  (Don't buy used SW lamps!!!!  The glass eventually is solarized by the UV, and used lamps have got to be bad).

A few links:
UV Tools - http://www.uvtools.com/
Way too Cool - http://www.polmanminerals.com
UV Systems - http://www.uvsystems.com
[Correction - http://www.uvlp.com is the Canadian manufacturer, maybe connected to UV Tools)

Pic below - my homemade 26 watt SW lamp using an off-the-shelf housing.  It has two bulbs and you can have either SW, MW or LW for each bulb for a multi-wavelength lamp.  I think I have some build instructions around somewhere if anyone wants it....  (the battery pack pictured is a 4.6AH 13.2vdc pack - LiFE)
 

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The way I'm seeing it, the best would be to have a thingy with many tubes in your hand and a wire to several battery packs on your belt for most power on the field, without holding a suitcase:-/.Too bad there aren't any shorter wave diodes, or frequency tripling isn't more efficient, or gas lasers less bulky and more power efficient to have some kind of portable powerfull shortwave laser on the field :P
 
Switch said:
The way I'm seeing it, the best would be to have a thingy with many tubes in your hand and a wire to several battery packs on your belt for most power on the field, without holding a suitcase:-/.Too bad there aren't any shorter wave diodes, or frequency tripling isn't more efficient, or gas lasers less bulky and more power efficient to have some kind of portable powerfull shortwave laser on the field :P
Click to expand...


Or get/build a Blu-Ray, keep it at a low enough power to have a long duty cycle, and defocus the lens or use a diffraction grate. Unfortunately, you'll still miss some of the ones that fluoresce at shorter wavelengths.

Peace,
dave
 
Unfortunately, you'll still miss some of the ones that fluoresce at shorter wavelengths.  
Click to expand...
Yea that was kinda my point for a shorwave laser :-/ I'm starting to imagine a 6x pointer in a rich cave with the megamatrix grating....KEWL! :D I wonder if you get a lot of the orange glowing sodalite and smash it up into a really really fine powder and throw it in the air.....It should make your blu-ray beam be very visible , and orange :P ;D Or white glowing calcite to have a white laser :D
 
The ideal world - 4 or 5 SW laser diodes on the end of a wire in one of these tiny hosts you guys use... But alas, that's a long ways off. But the idea of 4 Blu-Ray diodes in a host similar to the one I am using now has struck me. For me in the field this LW diode is really advantageous.

Be careful throwing rock dust in the air! Many minerals - Greenland minerals in particular - have variouis elements not so good to breath - uranium, beryllium etc.

I have an old unattended aquarium here with a lonely catfish in it (daughter who lost interest). The catfish is happy, but the water is old and filled with "Stuuf" - clear to the eye but shining the Blu-Ray thru the water causes a beautiful burgandy beam of light; must be fluoresent micro algae.... Kinda like the air idea.

Calcite is interesting - if you get a cleaved piece (calcite breaks along a flat cleavage) that is tranparent, shining the beam thru it does all kinds of strange things.

Gotta find this megamatrix grating - sounds like something that might be useful for my LD??? I did some quick research into diffraction gratings, but didn't see anything particularly useful yet...
 
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