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Blue Light Fluorescence - Who needs UV anyway?

We all are familiar with fluorescence caused by UV. But an ordinary blue light (blue LED) does a pretty good job when combined with some yellow glasses to block the blue and let through the other colors. A very detailed study was conducted by Earl Verbeek, PhD and Charles Mazel, PhD and published in the Picking Table.

(Pulled from a Facebook post by Graham Fraser) Here are some pics of it. The first series are mainly well known calcites. Top row middle is the piece of Afgan hackmanite. Middle row corundum (ruby) then Italian quartz, then part of an Italian aragonite. Bottom row Glendo calcite then part of a piece with gypsum crystals. The second series are all fluorites. Note that in the blue light pics there is no UV turned on. Blue light pics are taken through a Tiffen No12 filter which cuts out blue light. For the theory http://www.nightsea.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Picking-Table-Fall-2014.pdf

The first two pictures show various calcite specimens (and others) illuminated by white light and under shortwave UV.

The pictures above show the same specimens illuminated by longwave UV, and then by a simply blue light (photographed through a yellow filter)

Fluorite shown under white light, shortwave UV, and blue light (photographed with a yellow filter)

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Nature’s Rainbows is a non-commercial website for the hobby community.  It is maintained entirely by volunteer hobbyists and contributors.  Our mission is to provide information about UV and luminescence, premium fluorescent mineral photos, and a fluorescent mineral database for the enjoyment of FL mineral collectors around the world.  Information on this web site is covered under a Creative Commons License.


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