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Clusters of well-formed danburite crystals fluorescent a blue and in some cases, areas of green under midwave and shortwave UV light. The green fluorescent response is due to the trace amounts of uranyl ion (uranium). Calcite fluoresces a nice pinkish-red and displays BIP.
Brief intense phosphorescence, or “BIP”, is a phenomenon where for a brief moment immediately after the shortwave lamp is turned off, it displays a very short-lived, but bright phosphorescence or flash. It’s very difficult to capture this in the photos. Typical for manganese activated calcites.
They were nicknamed "Yooperlites" which is derived from the name “yooper”. A yooper is a nickname for the Upper Peninsula natives and these fluorescent stones quickly gained fame. After data was published on these fluorescent stones, it was discovered that sodalite is the actual true mineral that is fluorescing orange.
365nm UV light is often called "blacklight". Before the advent of longwave UV LEDs, blacklight fluorescent tubes, (the kinds used in hippie days to light up psychedelic posters) were the standard longwave UV light for our hobby. They were not very powerful but they did light a large area.
Enter 365nm UV LEDs
First, an animation showing the difference between the UV flashlight we recommend (365nm filtered UV flashlight) versus unfiltered 395nm UV flashlights we see many folks carrying around at shows. So. much. visible purple light. We selected a bunch of rocks as a demonstration. Took pictures of them under his flashlight without the filter and then with the filter.
