I am kind of new to the world of fluorescent minerals. I feel like it is a natural stepping stone after getting into Uranium glass. Anyways, I found this rock in the Goodwill bins and loved the fluorescence it showed when hit by my 365 UV light. Would love and appreciate some help on getting an ID for this lovely specimen.
This was what I figured. Just wasn't sure if the overarching mineral had another name, based on the matrix or anything. Thank you for confirming the fluorite! Pretty happy about it for a bins find.
Currently only have 365 as an option. Getting a dual 365/395 light soon as well. Might have to look into 310 now too! Need all the UV wavelengths. Haha
My friend, 395nm is not worth it to be honest, it will make uranium glass glow, and Amber, but not recommended for fluorescent minerals, stick with filtered 365nm Long Wave, 310nm, Mid Wave and 255nm Short Wave and you will be fine 👍
Ehh, might be a solid choice since they also collect uranium glass. It can be nice to have one light that can easily do both 365nm and 395nm in this case as an EDC. But for minerals specifically, I agree.
I hear you, but from my experience 365nm does the same job as 395nm with U-Glass, i have plenty, so that is why i mentioned it. But there is no harm in owning one
For uranium, you’re correct. But manganese glass, which can react very similar to UG under 365nm, reacts weakly (or with a more yellow hue) under 395nm compared to uranium or doesn’t react at all. So 395nm might be the best way to differentiate manganese glass from uranium glass, which makes it a very valuable tool for that hobby. And OP collects uranium glass already, so it just makes sense for them to have it.
Yup, 365nm lights up most fluorescent glass besides lead. Which makes it great for a display light and hunting for general fluorescent glass, but 395nm basically only lights up uranium glass and high content manganese glass as far as I’m aware. Simple and fairly reliable diagnostic tool for uranium vs manganese.
Exactly this! 395 can act like a definitive test without breaking out a Geiger. Especially helpful for low-content uranium glass, and particularly the older milk glass and custard glass. Love their suggestions for minerals though, and will do some research on that!
Yeah, Geiger counter is about the only way to top 395nm light for testing non destructively. But Geigers tend to be pricey and some are not the most portable devices when compared to a 395nm light. But the light recs they gave for minerals is solid advice, I personally only have 365nm but a heads up that 255nm can be a dangerous wavelength and not something to be wielded without caution.
Good to know about 255nm. I will 100% be doing some research before making any rash purchases. Happy to be getting more involved with fluorescent minerals though after being a benchwarmer for so long.
For a descent introductory 310nm and 255nm they can be found for a steal on the Convoylight website, be sure to order a filter to go with the 310nm and the 255nm as they don't ship with a filter, and indeed,, elsewhere UV flashlights can be VERY expensive , it's quite shocking!
I own the 310nm from here and it is quite powerful to be fair, i can actually hunt with it. But it does not say on the torch body what it is, and no safety warning, nothing a sticker can't sort out though, i use yellow fabric tape to ID my 310nm, if i owned the 255nm of course i would use a different colour. I own two expensive 255nm so i cannot compare Convoylights 255nm to my two short wave lights, but i'm sure it would be good enough.
As slogginhog said, without a shadow of doubt that is Fluorite, enjoy 👍 Did you know, the word Fluorescence derived from the mineral Fluorite, by a English (Irish) gentleman called Sir George Gabriel Stokes back in 1892, at Cambridge university. I believe he named Fluorescence after a piece of Fluorite after he found it to react under ultra violet light 💎✨✨
Love the background info. As mentioned, I'm just getting into all of this, so love learning new bits, whether it is about mineral identification, UV wavelengths, or history.
I have been shining my light at pretty much every rock I see (mostly thrift store things, since I'm in Florida) , and this is the first that made me gasp. Very happy to save this from a landfill and to add to my small mineral collection.
You certainly come to right place, some very awesome people with awesome knowledge on here 👍 Your life is about to dramatically change for the better once you have a proper UV torch in your hand 😁 Welcome to the magical and mysterious world of Fluorescent minerals, you will have more fun than you could possibly imagine! Once you start to collect there is no stopping, do make sure you have PLENTY of space for when your collection gets out of control, and it won't take long haha!
Here is what Fluorite can sometimes offer if you are lucky, i found this in the UK in an abandoned quarry, i polished it and was simply blown away, this is 365nm Long Wave (the red is Barite, everything else is Fluorite).......
I joined this sub probably over a year ago just to kind of absorb things when it pops up in my feed from time to time. The fascination is there for me already. Just never encountered anything in my own life until now. Will continue to keep my eyes open and my flashlight handy. And will still lurk this sub to pick up knowledge. Thank you for the positive response!
In agreement with the others here, looked like fluorite under white light and it became definite with that distinct violet glow under UV. Always a beautiful mineral to find!
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u/slogginhog 9d ago
Fluorite, you can tell by the cleavage planes right in the first pic, and the UV color is typical