I'm not sure how many people have built the 18 watt SW conversion from Mark Cole's plans on MinerShop, but if you did or intend to do so, here's mine I've finally completed. There are other DIY lamp plans on the page but I feel that 35w is too much power for field use....

My small hand-held short wave lamp is useful, but has its limitations. I was interested in a much more powerful light for display and photography. After some research and talking to collectors with large displays, I learned about the transilluminator, a piece of labora...

(This is copied from a Facebook post by Bruce W.  Black boxes are had to find for our hobby; white boxes destroy fluorescence.):

Ever want to store your glow rocks in boxes, but don't want to pay for flats? Do what I do - collect copy paper boxes at your place of busine...

In general, the Ah capacity of batteries sold from China are not worth the plastic they are printed on. The vendors/manufacturers lie so they can get you to click on buying theirs over some other fraudster's batteries. Best to buy genuine Sanyo Eneloop or genuine P...

The most powerful 365nm flashlight in its class (or any class). Open source design

Friends don't let friends use crappy unfiltered 390nm flashlights.

This is an educational post, directed towards folks new to the hobby. There has been discussion in our FB group lately about using cheapie 39Xnm flashlights for fluorescent minerals. I am passionate abou...

A pet peeve of mine is honesty in advertising.  Over the past 3+ months I’ve seen companies advertising ever higher power Convoy type flashlights – usually with an LG LED. Every single one of these ads is misleading – I could say downright lies but my bet is that the f...

It's the wild west out there!  About three years ago I wrote a blog post about the Convoy S2+ here on Nature's Rainbows.  The FLM collecting community embraced this new high-power LW flashlight and almost every serious hobbyist I know now has one in their toolkit....

I have happily been using and recommending the Convoy S2+ 365 nm UV flashlight since early 2017 when Mark Cole first posted about it. It is a fantastic product, small and powerful and cheap. However, it is a little too small and I found myself putting it down and forge...

Over the years I've had requests for lighting controllers that would allow us to remotely control our different wavelength lights, as well as cycle through the lighting automatically, turning them on/off at a programmed rate/sequence.  I've toyed around with writing cu...

By now the fluorescent mineral community has heard of the new Convoy S2 365nm flashlight that has taken our hobby by storm.  It is the most significant new technology to hit our hobby in years, or even decades.  Based on a high power 365nm UV LED, it is providing field...

Fluorescent minerals are found almost anywhere there is a good selection of white light minerals. Mine dumps/tailing piles are obviously great candidates for any mineral, fluorescents included. Many abandoned mines and prospects offer good hunting, as well as remote...

This post was made over four years ago. Since that time it has become outdated.  There is a new light - the Convoy FyrFly which is significantly brighter and a major next-generation of an already excellent light.  Technology moves on; I hope to do a review on it a...

Rock collecting is a cheap hobby.

Fluorescent rock collecting is an expensive hobby.

View the Entire Review Here: Mineral Lights

We've added some new pages to the Nature's Rainbow web site, including a review of the best mineral lights for our hobby.  Check 'em out...

The...

This question always comes up when we're traveling to some far off, glorious glow rock haven.  Luckily, the FAA has published rules that are easy to understand - covers lithium batteries, lead acid, and all other batteries.  Reposted below from this link:

https://w...