ETA - Two new samples - 4.18.2020
ETA - BIRB FEATHERS THAT GLOW - and my one Uranium glass piece - 4.27.2020
So with reduced hours and no commute, I have several extra hours in the day. And so I need to desperately declutter. I started with the most logical place, the cabinet with my partially organized rock collection - because even though it already had its place and was relatively organized, it clearly is the best place to begin over the stacks of boxes containing god knows what.
So I took pics of my glowy rocks. I got a cheap but serviceable Shorwave/Longwave UV lamp. Blacklights are usually Longwave, and many of the best fluorescent minerals glow only under Shortwave. So I was sooo stoked when I finally found a decent lamp at last years gem and mineral show.
So here are the rocks under normal light, and rocks under UV light. Some of them don’t photograph that well with my phone camera, and some actually look a little better - like the ones that glow red/purple. So in some cases I know what I have due to buying them and having them labeled. Several of these I found in rock piles in yard, even glowing faintly under LW light. And some were stuff I have had since I was a kid and I have no idea where they are from. A lot f them were polished in a rock tumbler.
So, anyway here we go - enjoy!
Amber from India
A grouping of Orange Calcite, Green Uranium Glass Slag, and Blue Fluorite
I have had these items for decades. I found them as a kid, but not sure where. I am pretty sure this is a type or Uranium glass, but from what? It has black glass mixed in and the sides are rough and even appear to have some rock like stuff stuck to the side. Maybe this is slag glass too and mixed in with other glass or some sand. But wow does it glow.
Gypsum crystals. Rather faint glow, but a less common blue.
Ruby in glass vial and ruby in green zoisite
Dunno what this - I think its a granite or some other metamorphic rock with differnt bits of minerals
A group of unknown polished rocks that glow green
A group of unknown polished rocks that glow orange. The two on the right look like basalt maybe? They are just a dark grey rock. The others are these banded blue rocks which I think I found on some train tracks with my dad to polish up.
Another group of unknown polished rocks which glow orange - with one having some green!
These dont photograph well. I have no idea what they are, but I think it might just be a lime stone. I think I found these all in just peoples yard rock with just a regular black light and these glow under both SW and LW. To the eye these glow a faint orange, but on camera it is more of white. But the left you definitely see stripes/layers, the right one just has a general glow, and the bottom one looks like a deposit of something. Or maybe it is a fossil? Something soft bodied even?
Dunno what these are but they are a light red metamorphic rock and both I think are the same kind of rock. But look at that red/purple! The camera seems to bring out this color better than what you see with the eye.
An odd bunch - something orange with an almost fibrous structure that reminds me of Selentite, and white rock that could be anything, and another metamorphic rock with bits of red.
I know I picked this up because it looked like two rocks in on. And later I took the UV light to it. Like that group above this is a faint orange, and glows under both SW and LW. But it shows a clear glowing line where the two types of rock meet.
Maybe a marble? But it has an orange streak in it
Blue slag glass that used to be in an aquarium
Calcite from England. I got this awesome one before I got my lamp. But it and the Willemite are my finale!
Willemite with Calcite - Franklin, NJ - this is one of the more common "WOW! minerals and I bought this before I got my lamp.
Two new samples. I ended up looking at my book shelf with my light, and my two geodes glow some. They are both from Mexico, I believe, but different areas.
The first one I get every year at the ren fair with the kiddo and we each keep half. The purple in the pic is just the UV lamp, but it has a ring of green!
The second one is druzy quartz also from Mexico. It is much more fragile than the other one. It glows white with a little green pocket.
