Bedrock Bob Posted August 4, 2021 Share Posted August 4, 2021 I have been out in the desert at night for the past three summers using a cheapo UV flashlight. I have found several nice specimens of calcite that really glows nicely. I know if I had a decent light with the proper filter I could find some valuable specimens. Do any of you guys hunt for flourescent minerals? What light do you use? What do you recommend? Im not a collector and I dont intend to use the light to illuminate a display. I want one that I can carry around at night and collect bugs and minerals. Any input on the subject would be nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GotAU? Posted August 4, 2021 Share Posted August 4, 2021 Get a good mineral light with both shortwave and longwave UV. We have one of these 11watt models: https://www.uvtools.com/products/m101ho-11-watt-shortwave-longwave-ultraviolet-lamp-kit-click-here these are samples of calcedony (green) and calcite (red) I collected from the Franconia site. No meteorites, but doing this was fun! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedrock Bob Posted August 4, 2021 Author Share Posted August 4, 2021 Kewl! I like that lamp. And the price is not too bad either. Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GotAU? Posted August 4, 2021 Share Posted August 4, 2021 (edited) The lamp is well-made and has long and short wave, along with a medium wave bulb. The company I linked has great service. The extra minerals they send with the lamp make a good comparative ID set as well. If you’re going to be using it with someone else, pick up a spare set of UV goggles for it, that shortwave lamp is bad for the eyes. Find some scorpions and other cool stuff with it, it’s really neat to use around camp. You’ll be amazed how much fluorescent minerals you’ll find out there with it. I don’t live in an area with uranium ore, but that may be something interesting to find with it too. Edited August 4, 2021 by GotAU? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morlock Posted August 4, 2021 Share Posted August 4, 2021 If anyone here has metal detected for gold nuggets, I'm sure they've walked right over fluorescent rock and mineral specimens without even knowing it. It's estimated that 15% of all rock and minerals are fluorescent so that gives you some idea how common (or uncommon) they are. The most common are calcite and chalcedony which fluorese red and green under SW lamp respectively. But there's about 500 other rocks and minerals that fluorese yellow, purple, blue orange, pink, etc. But not all fluorese in SW. Value is determined by aesthetics, size of specimen and the number of colors or combos. A single color specimen would normally be worth less than a two colored one unless it was a rare species. Generally speaking the more colors, the higher the valuation but a lot of other factors can go into it. It's estimated there's well over 10,000 collectors world-wide with the majority of them here in the USA so there's a good market for specimens. All that's required is a good SW field lamp as that's the most common wavelength...254nm. LW is 365nm and midwave I believe is either 302nm or 310nm. If I was going to recommend a SW field lamp this is the one I would get. https://www.engeniousdesigns.com/product-page/drk-light It can be used at night and on cloudy days. It's a little expensive but all it takes is one good specimen and it's paid for. Most of you guys know where the local mines, tailing piles, outcroppings, etc are and those would be the obvious places to check first. But there's a lot of other areas where they could be found as well. All you have to do is search for them... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GotAU? Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 (edited) 37 minutes ago, Morlock said: If anyone here has metal detected for gold nuggets, I'm sure they've walked right over fluorescent rock and mineral specimens without even knowing it. It's estimated that 15% of all rock and minerals are fluorescent so that gives you some idea how common (or uncommon) they are. The most common are calcite and chalcedony which fluorese red and green under SW lamp respectively. But there's about 500 other rocks and minerals that fluorese yellow, purple, blue orange, pink, etc. But not all fluorese in SW. Value is determined by aesthetics, size of specimen and the number of colors or combos. A single color specimen would normally be worth less than a two colored one unless it was a rare species. Generally speaking the more colors, the higher the valuation but a lot of other factors can go into it. It's estimated there's well over 10,000 collectors world-wide with the majority of them here in the USA so there's a good market for specimens. All that's required is a good SW field lamp as that's the most common wavelength...254nm. LW is 365nm and midwave I believe is either 302nm or 310nm. If I was going to recommend a SW field lamp this is the one I would get. https://www.engeniousdesigns.com/product-page/drk-light It can be used at night and on cloudy days. It's a little expensive but all it takes is one good specimen and it's paid for. Most of you guys know where the local mines, tailing piles, outcroppings, etc are and those would be the obvious places to check first. But there's a lot of other areas where they could be found as well. All you have to do is search for them... I certainly didn’t know about the potential commercial value of florescent minerals! That looks like a nice lamp. The one I linked is a great starting out one because it’s a lot less expensive and has the same SW output as the other (11w 254nm SW), and it also has MW and 365nm LW. From what I can tell between both lamps, the big difference is you have to swap the bulb to go from MW to LW on the less expensive model and the lower power output on LW and MW. Edited August 5, 2021 by GotAU? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morlock Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 Here's an excellent website to browse through for anyone interested in learning more about fluorescent minerals. https://www.naturesrainbows.com/ 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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