Forums › Forums › Farktography General Chat › This week’s contest › 01-28-09 – Rocks
- This topic has 92 replies, 19 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 2 months ago by
corsec67.
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January 29, 2009 at 1:32 am #20541
orionidParticipantorionid, what do you use as a UV light source? just regular black light?
A regular blacklight can work, with a good UV filter, but they have a significant amout of visible spectrum (not a bad thing, per se). That’s actually what I used for the ruby photo. As far as what I was planning with fluorite, I also have a short-wave UV lamp that’s used by mineralogoists for classifying and identifying unknown specimens (as well as for frying microbes for sterilization) that I picked up a few years back. If you go that route, you’d might need to add a little natural spectrum light, otherwise you’ll only see what fluoresces. The shortwave is a higher frequency, though, and is more likely to make some minerals fluoresce, or fluoresce more intensely.
Here’s the science:
UV = high frequency electromagnetic waves/particles between visible light and X-ray. UV photons strike the electrons in the valance (outer) shell of various atoms in the mineral structure and bump them to the next outward layer. Electron settles in to higher energy state. Ambient energy (thermal, etc.) causes electron to break free and settle back down to previous energy state. Electrons sudden loss of potential energy is converted to a low-energy photon in the visible light spectrum. Stoners and science geeks go “oooohhhh, it glows”January 29, 2009 at 1:42 am #20542Elsinore
KeymasterElsinore, it’s almost scary how similar our entries could have been. I had actually ordered a flourite octohedron off of ebay that didn’t get here yet. Although, I was going to UV expose it like the ruby. Fluorite makes a nice blue-green that’s really bright under shortwave UV.
/Edited because I failed to spell “our” correctly.
Oh wow…I’d actually forgotten all about mine until I went digging through a box of tumbled stones and whatnot. I’d thought my fluorite was more greenish, but that one was a tumbled stone, so not eligible for tonight. I’m always fascinated by the different shapes crystals take.
January 29, 2009 at 3:03 am #20543Choc-Ful-A
ParticipantHere a gallery of B-Sides from this week’s contest in case you still want more rocks!
I had every intention of posting this shot from Joshua Tree but the 3 people that reviewed the finalists didn’t like it. They were pushing for this hazy ocean cliff and this jagged wall of rocks in Sequoia National Park.
Nobody agreed on which shots to pick this week. So it was very hard to decide what to use. Is it too early to suggest this be added to the list of recurring themes? 🙂
January 29, 2009 at 3:18 am #20544soosh
Participantdoesn’t the shot of Mt Rushmore fall outside of the acceptable parameters of the contest?
January 29, 2009 at 3:27 am #20545KeymasterYeah, sorry I missed that one.
January 29, 2009 at 3:49 am #20546KeymasterMy power just failed for the second time today and there’s no guarantee it will come back anytime soon. I”m on very limited battery backup and about to shut down. If you all need anything, hit the report to moderators link at the bottom of the thread. Hopefully I’ll get power back soon…
January 29, 2009 at 4:13 am #20547olavf
ParticipantD’oh! good luck Elsinore!
I’ll be here second guessing dredging up my old Yosemite pics :/
January 29, 2009 at 5:07 am #20548orionidParticipantSweet. I pulled drunk van duty tonight. I can watch the action unfold over my phone!
January 29, 2009 at 5:13 am #20549KeymasterBack for now, but no guarantees on how long…*fingers crossed*
If it’s any consolation, olavf I’m second guessing *not* dredging up my old Yosemite pics 😉
January 29, 2009 at 5:21 am #20550Participantack! I need to remember to not post and cook dinner at the same time :/
January 29, 2009 at 5:25 am #20551nutkick_42
ParticipantI had lots of ideas for this week, but my new camera is still in transit. Stupid ice storms.
January 29, 2009 at 5:30 am #20552corsec67
ParticipantWell, Utah seems to be doing well in this contest.
(All 3 of my entries are from Utah)
January 29, 2009 at 6:01 am #20553lokisbong
ParticipantI can say with certainty that all of my pictures are northern California based. The pics from Utah are great but the few I noticed from Hawaii make me wish I had a more profitable job.
January 29, 2009 at 8:14 am #20554RcMacStudent
ParticipantLots of incredible pictures tonight, good job everyone.
January 29, 2009 at 8:24 am #20555orionidParticipantI can say with certainty that all of my pictures are northern California based. The pics from Utah are great but the few I noticed from Hawaii make me wish I had a more profitable job.
While not neccesarily more profitable, I can reccomend at least one job that can take you to Hawaii. All you need are some solid math skills, a relatively clean police record, and the nerve (cockiness can usually substitute) to operate the nuclear reactor in a muti-billion dollar war machine.
/don’t let me kid you…. submarines are the greatest suck that have ever sucked. It’s just the cool parts make you forget that sometimes.
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