Scheelite from Chenzhou, Hunan, China
Little cluster of well formed scheelite crystals. Dark colored in daylight, they fluoresce the typical bright blue under shortwave UV light and a quite nice orange/red under midwave UV light (a bit overexposed in the photo…). The blue shortwave fluorescence is...
Fluorescence Spectroscopy and Zoning of Apatite
At the Rochester Mineralogical Symposium in 2022 Madeline Murchland gave a very nice presentation about fluorescence spectroscopy and zoning in apatite. Here is a recording of her talk.
Multicolor Longwave Minerals
Everybody is familiar with mineral specimens that fluoresce two or more colors under shortwave UV light. Just think about a classical red-and-green calcite and willemite from Franklin. But are there similar multicolor specimens under longwave?? Mark challenged the...
Gaspeite: The Fluorescent Pretender
I’ve known more than one collector who has been enticed by the brilliant blue/green fluorescence of the mineral gaspeite. In fact, under the light of a Convoy S2+ long wave flashlight, this material can produce one of the brightest fluorescent responses of any...
Synthetic Fluorescent Halite
This article was originally published by Stefano Buzzoni on Nature's Rainbow.To produce crystals at home is an interesting experiment and if they fluoresce, could be “magic”. Furthermore, it’s easy and cheap. The only ingredient you have to use in big quantity is...
Gem Tabular Ruby Cluster: An Unique Crystal Habit
Most ruby specimens are either high-priced single/group of crystals on a marble matrix, or cheap massive habit rough from India. Not so here. This cluster of hundreds (or thousands) of intersecting crystals screams color and brightness, and has a delicate, not seen...
Pyromorphite and Plumbogummite – A Midwave Glow
There's been some cornfusion about the fluorescence of pyromorphite lately in the Fluorescent Minerals Facebook Group. I'll try and summarize, but invite others to wikify. For our purposes the nicest pyromorphite comes from the Bunker Hill Mine, Kellogg, Idaho, from...
Carpathite Crystals from San Benito Co., California, USA
Rick Kennedy surprised most folks in the FMS Fluorescent Mineral Group (FB) by posting pics of this magnificent cluster of carpathite crystals. Carpathite (karpatite) is a very rare hydrocarbon mineral first described in 1955. In California it appears as a low...
Fluorescent, Phosphorescent and Thermoluminescent Fluorite from the Globe Mine (Rio Arriba)
This article was originally published by Stefano Buzzoni on Nature's Rainbow.This kind of fluorite was well described by Robbins (1984). “...This material is opaque, and greenish or gray in daylight. Under long wave, the fluorescence is violet. Under short wave, the...
Cuspidine under Longwave UV
We have a bunch of folks attending the Franklin "SuperDigg" this April (2017). Many of them are carrying the new Convoy 365nm LW flashlight (see the GlowNotes article on this light) so I thought it would be nice to give folks an idea of what many of the minerals they...