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On the second side of the sphere, under midwave UV, you can clearly see the bright, violet leucophanite crystals. Leucophanite is rare. It's only found in a few places around the world - most notably Norway, Canada MSH), and Greenland. This is probably one of the only spheres containing clear leucophanite crystals in the entire world.
A nicely tenebrescent and fluorescent sodalite sphere containing a very interesting mix of mineralogy. The green areas are likely chkalovite, blue is likely analcime. If you look closely, you can see some minor tugtupite veining as well as minor dots of silver polylithionite.
Under shortwave UV, you’ll notice the sodalite darkening to a reddish-orange due to the tenebrescence that is occurring.
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.
