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UV Lights and Fluorescent Minerals - a fun side hobby to metal detecting !

Wow, neat pics KT !!!!

I like the comparisons, and I can understand how difficult it can be to get on a photograph how good it looks in person, that's why occasionally I will remind readers the minerals tend to have more of a wow effect when seen in person, not to mention the difficulty with getting the color to look the same in some instances.
 
I agree KT that the Way Too Cool model is an excellent choice and I even like the design better, but I just wanted to clarify what the Part 2 video brought out to be fair with the additional info he discovered.

If I remember the specifics in the Part 2 video correctly he thinks that with even better NIMH "D" batteries than what he used that the UV tools lamp will likely be an even comparison to the Way Too Cool lamp. I think he said the NIMH batteries he used was rated at 8000mah but tested at only 4000mah.

I ordered from Amazon a 4 pack of NIMH "D" batteries rated at 10000mah and a good customer rating.

I figured since I already had a UV Tools lamp that it would be cheaper to buy the good NIMH batteries to see if it does indeed make big enough difference so that buying a Way Too Cool model would be an unnecessary expense. (I had been using regular alkaline "D" batteries)

Here are the batteries I just ordered for my UV Tools lamp:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08B4SCCPY/

and I found a charger that had a 30% off coupon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BNQFKVZ/

.....if I didn't already have a UV Tools lamp I bought long ago I might likely be more inclined to buy the Way Too Cool lamp, but if the good rated NIMH batteries make a good difference with the UV Tools lamp I already have then I can be content with continuing to use what I already have. (hey, got to stretch my hobby budget when I can :lol:)

Okay, finally did the comparison test showing how my UV Tools 6 watt SW UV worked using alkaline batteries, then using NIMH batteries.

I took unfiltered pics using my smartphone of the same SW reactive minerals from the same basic distance.

(as I said before, it's hard to get the photos to show the minerals under UV to look as good as they do in person, but it still shows the comparative difference)

First photo is with using the alkaline batteries, second is with the NIMH batteries

NOTE: in person the minerals under alkaline batteries were more visible than what the photo seems to show, and the minerals using NIMH batteries looked even better than how the photo shows, but it still shows the difference.

(as you can see the NIMH batteries made a very noticeable difference !)
SW UV with alkaline batteries 20210615.jpg SW UV with NIMH batteries 20210615.jpg

(again, the minerals in both pics looked better in person, with the NIMH batteries making a big difference !)
 
Okay, finally did the comparison test showing how my UV Tools 6 watt SW UV worked using alkaline batteries, then using NIMH batteries.

I took unfiltered pics using my smartphone of the same SW reactive minerals from the same basic distance.

(as I said before, it's hard to get the photos to show the minerals under UV to look as good as they do in person, but it still shows the comparative difference)

First photo is with using the alkaline batteries, second is with the NIMH batteries

NOTE: in person the minerals under alkaline batteries were more visible than what the photo seems to show, and the minerals using NIMH batteries looked even better than how the photo shows, but it still shows the difference.

(as you can see the NIMH batteries made a very noticeable difference !)
View attachment 486139 View attachment 486140

(again, the minerals in both pics looked better in person, with the NIMH batteries making a big difference !)

That is a major difference, for certain! Just goes to how much of an advance NIMH technology was over alkaline batteries. Anyone with even a regular flashlight that can take NIMH batteries should consider them.:hi5:

Also, your pair of pictures show the difference in sensitivity between the human eye and the camera, especially when dealing with UV sensitive materials. That is why taking decent in focus pictures of fluorescing minerals is difficult with a point and shoot camera.
 
That is a major difference, for certain! Just goes to how much of an advance NIMH technology was over alkaline batteries. Anyone with even a regular flashlight that can take NIMH batteries should consider them.:hi5:

Also, your pair of pictures show the difference in sensitivity between the human eye and the camera, especially when dealing with UV sensitive materials. That is why taking decent in focus pictures of fluorescing minerals is difficult with a point and shoot camera.

That's a good way to explain it, the human eye can be more sensitive to seeing the glow of UV reactive minerals than a camera does, that is why when you take a photo of the glowing minerals you always tend to think "it looks better than that in person when I am looking at it directly".

The NIMH batteries do seem to make a very noticeable difference over alkaline batteries. Sure, the initial expense is more than alkaline batteries, but considering how many times they can be recharged (the ones I got said "it can be recharge up to 1200 cycles") then it is obvious they will pay for themselves within about as few as 4 to 8 recharges (depending on what you pay for alkaline) and ultimately pay for themselves many times over with how many times you can recharge them.

Of course as with any product you need to buy quality NIMH batteries that have a good customer rating. Also note there is a range of power levels, the ones I got are rated as "10000mAh".

The thing I don't like about non-rechargeable alkaline batteries is that even before they drain enough to not operate a device at all their power level will go down far enough that with some gadgets (like UV lamps) you will realize it is no longer giving the maximum performance you know the device is capable of doing. At least with the rechargeable NIMH batteries you can top off the charge after the performance gets noticeably less, as the ones I bought said "no memory effect" so you don't have to wait till they are fully drained to recharge.
 
That's a good way to explain it, the human eye can be more sensitive to seeing the glow of UV reactive minerals than a camera does, that is why when you take a photo of the glowing minerals you always tend to think "it looks better than that in person when I am looking at it directly".

The NIMH batteries do seem to make a very noticeable difference over alkaline batteries. Sure, the initial expense is more than alkaline batteries, but considering how many times they can be recharged (the ones I got said "it can be recharge up to 1200 cycles") then it is obvious they will pay for themselves within about as few as 4 to 8 recharges (depending on what you pay for alkaline) and ultimately pay for themselves many times over with how many times you can recharge them.

Of course as with any product you need to buy quality NIMH batteries that have a good customer rating. Also note there is a range of power levels, the ones I got are rated as "10000mAh".

The thing I don't like about non-rechargeable alkaline batteries is that even before they drain enough to not operate a device at all their power level will go down far enough that with some gadgets (like UV lamps) you will realize it is no longer giving the maximum performance you know the device is capable of doing. At least with the rechargeable NIMH batteries you can top off the charge after the performance gets noticeably less, as the ones I bought said "no memory effect" so you don't have to wait till they are fully drained to recharge.

Absolutely, the 18650 Li Ion batteries for my lamps all have that no memory effect, so at any stage of discharge, one can just pop them back on the charger and have them up to peak in a much shorter time than if they get low. The batteries that came with my UVBeast T3 flashlight took about 8 hours to charge the first time...making KT think they were shipped with only about a 10% charge...of course they were packed separately, not in the lamp itself. And about the same for the spare 4 that I purchased off Amazon. Last time I charged them it only took about 3 hours.

I hope to come across some other worth minerals to photograph in the next few days, if so, they will be posted in here!

I am certain you know of that calcite that glows pink in LW, whitish in SW and has a distinct blue-white phosphorescence in SW....well, a piece of glassware KT purchased on eBay arrived today and it is blue in natural light, pinkish in LW, and whitish in SW. Pretty sweet! :D:D
 
Here are a couple of picture pairs of 2 fluorescent specimens that arrived in KT's Royal Mail Box this morning!

The first pair of pictures is of Adamite from Ojuela Mine, Mapimi, Mexico. Image size is about 3 3/4" square. 1st picture is in natural light, 2nd picture is in LW UV 365 nm. The Adamite crystals are on a soft crumbly limonite matrix, orange brown in color. Note it exhibits no response to UV.

The 2nd pair of pictures is of Tremolite from the Sunset South Mine, Maricopa Co., Arizona. Image size is about 4" square. 1st picture is in natural light, 2nd picture is in SW UV 254 nm. Note that the matrix also fluoresces a weak tan color, almost the same color as in the natural light image.

Hope those viewing these images enjoy them!
 

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Cool pics KT, thanks for sharing !!!! :thumbsup:

I like the really neat green glow of the Adamite crystals and it is so cool how the Tremolite looks like cold icy frost !
 
KT has won a few pieces of fluorescent glassware on eBay and when it all arrives, He will photograph them and post the pictures in this thread. Today a specimen of fluorescent sphalerite from New Jersey arrived so when some additional other minerals arrive KT will also get them posted!

It is His Majesty's hope that by showing photos of these pieces and their fluorescence, He might stir some sedentary collector back to activity again! Folks need hobbies to keep their minds active and have some pleasure in whatever hobby they choose!:laughing::laughing:
 
KT has won a few pieces of fluorescent glassware on eBay and when it all arrives, He will photograph them and post the pictures in this thread. Today a specimen of fluorescent sphalerite from New Jersey arrived so when some additional other minerals arrive KT will also get them posted!

It is His Majesty's hope that by showing photos of these pieces and their fluorescence, He might stir some sedentary collector back to activity again! Folks need hobbies to keep their minds active and have some pleasure in whatever hobby they choose!:laughing::laughing:

Neat KT, looking forward to seeing the pics hen you get time to take them !!!!

While I do consider metal detecting my "primary hobby" I enjoy having a secondary hobby like UV and fluorescent minerals because there are periods of time when I might not be able to detect as much as I'd like (various reasons like a stretch of rainy weather, and times when projects/chores don't leave enough free time in a day to be worth going on a hunt) and having a secondary hobby helps fill in when detecting isn't possible.

Now I would prefer to be able to find my own fluorescent minerals "in the wild" (just like as in detecting :lol:) many locations are limited in what you might be able to find. I do hope to very occasionally buy a few fluorescent mineral samples to add to my collection, but usually the really really super neat looking ones I'd like to buy are somewhat pricey :lol: so I might have to keep a watch out for yard sales :lol:
 
Neat KT, looking forward to seeing the pics hen you get time to take them !!!!

While I do consider metal detecting my "primary hobby" I enjoy having a secondary hobby like UV and fluorescent minerals because there are periods of time when I might not be able to detect as much as I'd like (various reasons like a stretch of rainy weather, and times when projects/chores don't leave enough free time in a day to be worth going on a hunt) and having a secondary hobby helps fill in when detecting isn't possible.

Now I would prefer to be able to find my own fluorescent minerals "in the wild" (just like as in detecting :lol:) many locations are limited in what you might be able to find. I do hope to very occasionally buy a few fluorescent mineral samples to add to my collection, but usually the really really super neat looking ones I'd like to buy are somewhat pricey :lol: so I might have to keep a watch out for yard sales :lol:

Well, honestly, that is how KT got into buying fluorescent glassware, by searching yard sales...and His Majesty has serious doubts one might ever find fluorescent rocks for sale in yard sales! HA HA And concerning eBay sales, KT restricts His Royal Spending to keeping an eye on the "less than $15 price range" for starters!:lol::lol:
 
Well, honestly, that is how KT got into buying fluorescent glassware, by searching yard sales...and His Majesty has serious doubts one might ever find fluorescent rocks for sale in yard sales! HA HA And concerning eBay sales, KT restricts His Royal Spending to keeping an eye on the "less than $15 price range" for starters!:lol::lol:

:laughing: I thought that also, but it doesn't hurt to ask when going to a yard sale just in case someone has, and is willing to sell, a fluorescent mineral collection at a "yard sale" price to raise money. But I agree that the fluorescent glassware has a much better chance of being found at yard sales than fluorescent minerals :lol:

As far as ebay the ones I see that have a super duper WOW factor are too pricey, like one I just looked at that has multiple colors all in one rock, including red/orange, violet-blue , green.... they want $150 plus $15 shipping, hey as super neat as it looks with a huge WOW factor, even if I had that amount available in my hobby budget I'd still have a hard time paying that much for one "rock" :lol:

I'm not saying the inexpensive ones are not really cool to look at also, but it seems like the ones that might have you looking like: :shock: are usually very pricey. I think in order for me to buy ones from ebay that have enough of a WOW factor for me to buy might need to be on the smaller sample size, it might be possible to get one that looks really super duper at a low price if it is small enough. Hey, not a big deal since I usually look at my minerals close up anyhow and not from across the room :lol:

I just now did an ebay search for fluorescent minerals and sorted them to start with lowest price including shipping first and as of right now the lowest one was listed as:

Fluorescent Calcite Thumbnail Mineral Specimen *Sterling Mine, New Jersey*
$2.25or Best Offer+$4.50 shipping

Not a bad price at all if it wasn't for shipping, it's not easy buying something where there shipping is twice the price of the item sold :lol:

......not sure how easy to would be to find stores locally that would sell such items, but I'd love to be able to pay under $5 for a fluorescent mineral in person and avoid the shipping cost :lol:
 
:laughing: I thought that also, but it doesn't hurt to ask when going to a yard sale just in case someone has, and is willing to sell, a fluorescent mineral collection at a "yard sale" price to raise money. But I agree that the fluorescent glassware has a much better chance of being found at yard sales than fluorescent minerals :lol:

As far as ebay the ones I see that have a super duper WOW factor are too pricey, like one I just looked at that has multiple colors all in one rock, including red/orange, violet-blue , green.... they want $150 plus $15 shipping, hey as super neat as it looks with a huge WOW factor, even if I had that amount available in my hobby budget I'd still have a hard time paying that much for one "rock" :lol:

I'm not saying the inexpensive ones are not really cool to look at also, but it seems like the ones that might have you looking like: :shock: are usually very pricey. I think in order for me to buy ones from ebay that have enough of a WOW factor for me to buy might need to be on the smaller sample size, it might be possible to get one that looks really super duper at a low price if it is small enough. Hey, not a big deal since I usually look at my minerals close up anyhow and not from across the room :lol:

I just now did an ebay search for fluorescent minerals and sorted them to start with lowest price including shipping first and as of right now the lowest one was listed as:

Fluorescent Calcite Thumbnail Mineral Specimen *Sterling Mine, New Jersey*
$2.25or Best Offer+$4.50 shipping

Not a bad price at all if it wasn't for shipping, it's not easy buying something where there shipping is twice the price of the item sold :lol:

......not sure how easy to would be to find stores locally that would sell such items, but I'd love to be able to pay under $5 for a fluorescent mineral in person and avoid the shipping cost :lol:

KT surely understands the shipping cost situation. He has always felt that unless it was sent Priority Mail, the dealer was ripping folks off for at least another couple of bucks. Do not let the eBay dealers convince you that multicolor specimens are the way to go! I would rather have a miniature super bright blue or white fluorite, than a multicolor of the same size. Those colors get lost when there are too many of them, IMHO. When KT looks over the Royal Collection, He sees a strong fluorescing yellow specimen, a strong green specimen, a strong red specimen, another strong green specimen. Each separate color draws the eye. To me that is spectacular. I have a miniature with strong yellow spots set in a pale red fluorescing calcite matrix. The yellow dominates to the Royal Eye and the red is just a minor background color, only noticable secondarily. You can build a very nice collection by sticking with some uniform sizes and single colors...even with just calcite! I have fluorescent red, cream, pink, bluish white and tan colors, all with just calcite from various locations! And fluorite...I have strongly blue, yellow, and other fluorescent colors in fluorite.

Today I received in the mail a blue glass heart-shaped embossed container for a ladies dressing table, probably used as a powder container...in natural light it is a medium strong blue, but in SW is it coloress white, and in long wave it is strongly orange! Such fun!

If you have any local rockshops, just take your lights in with you and look around the store, they will not mind...especially if you buy something! HA HA
 
KT surely understands the shipping cost situation. He has always felt that unless it was sent Priority Mail, the dealer was ripping folks off for at least another couple of bucks. Do not let the eBay dealers convince you that multicolor specimens are the way to go! I would rather have a miniature super bright blue or white fluorite, than a multicolor of the same size. Those colors get lost when there are too many of them, IMHO. When KT looks over the Royal Collection, He sees a strong fluorescing yellow specimen, a strong green specimen, a strong red specimen, another strong green specimen. Each separate color draws the eye. To me that is spectacular. I have a miniature with strong yellow spots set in a pale red fluorescing calcite matrix. The yellow dominates to the Royal Eye and the red is just a minor background color, only noticable secondarily. You can build a very nice collection by sticking with some uniform sizes and single colors...even with just calcite! I have fluorescent red, cream, pink, bluish white and tan colors, all with just calcite from various locations! And fluorite...I have strongly blue, yellow, and other fluorescent colors in fluorite.

Today I received in the mail a blue glass heart-shaped embossed container for a ladies dressing table, probably used as a powder container...in natural light it is a medium strong blue, but in SW is it coloress white, and in long wave it is strongly orange! Such fun!

If you have any local rockshops, just take your lights in with you and look around the store, they will not mind...especially if you buy something! HA HA

Good idea about simply putting various one color rocks together for an overall multicolor effect. I do have some small multicolor rocks, some came as samples with a UV lamp purchase, but I can see where having various one color rocks displayed together would have a neat effect !

It's neat when stuff like fluorescent glass will react to both SW and LW with different results !

I can do research on finding local rock shops, but living in a small town might not be any real close but still worth a check, good idea about taking the UV lights along to check for fluorescent minerals !
 
Yesterday evening KT gave a presentation on Ultraviolet light and mineral collecting to his local rock and mineral club! Needless to say it was enthusiastically received by our 25+ members. One of the topics His Majesty covered was popular literature and KT brought two books and several members also brought some of their books. Surprisingly, KT had recently purchased those books on Amazon.com :laughing::laughing:. When all these books arrive, supposedly this Saturday, KT will photograph them and post them in this thread, for those who want to learn more about this hobby. The theories concerning why some minerals fluoresce, and fantastic photographs are just part of what these book contain. Some minerals are relatively common, like calcite and fluorite, and commonly fluoresce a variety of different colors, and some minerals rarely fluoresce. So, come back by on Saturday and see what literature resources are readily available.:yes::yes::D

Also, one may wish to investigate and pehaps join the Fluorescent Minerals Society of America. Check them out by using the Google search engine!
 
Yesterday evening KT gave a presentation on Ultraviolet light and mineral collecting to his local rock and mineral club! Needless to say it was enthusiastically received by our 25+ members. One of the topics His Majesty covered was popular literature and KT brought two books and several members also brought some of their books. Surprisingly, KT had recently purchased those books on Amazon.com :laughing::laughing:. When all these books arrive, supposedly this Saturday, KT will photograph them and post them in this thread, for those who want to learn more about this hobby. The theories concerning why some minerals fluoresce, and fantastic photographs are just part of what these book contain. Some minerals are relatively common, like calcite and fluorite, and commonly fluoresce a variety of different colors, and some minerals rarely fluoresce. So, come back by on Saturday and see what literature resources are readily available.:yes::yes::D

Also, one may wish to investigate and pehaps join the Fluorescent Minerals Society of America. Check them out by using the Google search engine!

Way to go KT !!!!

Did you take some of your fluorescent rocks and UV lamps to the presentation ?

I've been to the Fluorescent Minerals Society web site, here is a link to their photo gallery:

https://www.uvminerals.org/minerals/gallery/
 
Way to go KT !!!!

Did you take some of your fluorescent rocks and UV lamps to the presentation ?

I've been to the Fluorescent Minerals Society web site, here is a link to their photo gallery:

https://www.uvminerals.org/minerals/gallery/

Certainly did, and His Majesty got ooos and ahhhs from the folks present! It is amazing how ordinary some of these rocks look, until you put the lamps on them! HA HA Glad you posted the FMS photo gallery link, because from that page at the top you can navigate to their home page, etc.
 
Certainly did, and His Majesty got ooos and ahhhs from the folks present! It is amazing how ordinary some of these rocks look, until you put the lamps on them! HA HA

Glad you posted the FMS photo gallery link, because from that page at the top you can navigate to their home page, etc.

Glad you got the response you did, just like kids :lol:

I sorta did a similar thing after church let out, I took a few samples with me in the car, I figured the kids would be amazed at seeing a few of the more spectacular samples and when I shined the UV on the rocks they were amazed and were really excited ......just like kids :lol:

I registered for the "Fluorescent Mineral Society" web site the other day (it's free to register) and after successfully registering tried to post on their forum at

https://www.uvminerals.org/forum/

and it wouldn't work, I noticed the latest posts were from 2 years ago, at first I thought it was simply a very inactive forum, but now I think it's been broken all that time :lol:

I sent them a message about it but have yet to hear back, their forum only has a total of 59 posts I think, I think the FMDF occasionally might sometimes get that many in as little as an hour or two :lol:

Might have to see if there are any active fluorescent mineral forums out there, it is a more specialized hobby so likely won't be anywhere even close as active as FMDF is :lol:

(it would just be mostly to try to learn more about where to hunt for fluorescent rocks in my local area)
 
KT used their donation page and gave them $60 for a 3 year membership, but has heard nothing from them. Sent them a couple of messages and nothing. His Majesty is getting a bit skeptical about the organization. It does say that they have an annual meeting every year at the Tucson show in February. But they do have an address in Indiana so KT will try snail mail and see if he gets a reply.
 
KT used their donation page and gave them $60 for a 3 year membership, but has heard nothing from them. Sent them a couple of messages and nothing. His Majesty is getting a bit skeptical about the organization. It does say that they have an annual meeting every year at the Tucson show in February. But they do have an address in Indiana so KT will try snail mail and see if he gets a reply.

I'm not a big fan of Facebook, seems too unorganized to me for one thing, anyhow doing a search they do seem to have a Facebook page (emblem is the same) I have not as of yet joined their Facebook page, but it looks like it's more active with a post as recent as yesterday. Maybe if you post there, or send them a PM thru the messenger function you can get an answer sooner.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/fluorescentminerals/

If you do contact them that way let me know if they also have anything to say about their other web site where the forum doesn't work and posts are 2 years old :lol:
 
I'm not a big fan of Facebook, seems too unorganized to me for one thing, anyhow doing a search they do seem to have a Facebook page (emblem is the same) I have not as of yet joined their Facebook page, but it looks like it's more active with a post as recent as yesterday. Maybe if you post there, or send them a PM thru the messenger function you can get an answer sooner.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/fluorescentminerals/

If you do contact them that way let me know if they also have anything to say about their other web site where the forum doesn't work and posts are 2 years old :lol:

KT got banned from Facebook about 3 years back...some scoundrel hacked KT's Facebook Account and and changed the Royal Password...after repeated attempts to log back on, KT was deemed a hacker and banned for life! KT decided He did not want to be on Facebook anymore anyway anyhow! Lived 67 years of my life off of it, was on it for 3 years, then kicked off, THWT. His Majesty will live the rest of His Royal Life without that nonesense! So do not expect KT to contact them via Facebook. Today He filed an official complaint through PayPal and also mailed their home office a letter, strongly worded!

They have no local Chapter in Arkansas, and KT is not interested in attending any of their regional meetings. In 2000 KT was President of the National Friends of Mineralogy and knows how such organizations should be run, but they just do not seem to be with it....too bad...their loss, not KTs.

His Majesty did get two of the three books on Fluorescent Minerals today that He ordered off of Amazon....other book will arrive in a few days...early next week. Then will give the info on what one needs to have some reference materials available for this hobby! Stay tuned!
 
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