FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[nurbo]

At Bakewell I also got this Aegirine, Smoky Quartz, Orthoclase piece too. Ive fancied one of these for a while I didnt expect to buy one like this though, its really busy , and a Gypsum from Poland tinted green and fantastically delicate..

[nurbo]

Here is my current favourite piece it is from an unnamed dump at Arkengarthdale in North Yorkshire, The (~2mm) white crystal's which are scattered around the surface of this piece are actually very densely formed cluster's of sub millimeter terminated Baryte crystal's,
Now I've had my knee operation I should be able to raise the money for a microscope, then Ill be able to take photo's of such detail's, these photo's are all 48 frame stack's using combinez. I particularly like the corroded termination's on this piece where you can see the Witherite underneath.

Ive been after a Veracruz Amethyst for a while but just a small one, I found this reverse sceptred Amethyst at Bakewell.last month.

[John S. White]

I think you are doing an excellent job with your close-ups. Very sharp. Much better than I can do. I particularly liked the campylite 4jpg : https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/files/4_121.jpg

[nurbo]

Thank you for your kind words John,
I do take a lot of photo's, over 17000 so far, Id describe my setup as amusingly low tech. the background is ordinary black card, the lighting comes from a small LED torch that cost just a few pounds, I soften the light with a piece of foam over the lens and I have a silver reflector (Which is actually a cardboard and tinfoil cake base).which I use to reflect sunlight into dark areas. Ive always been one for improvising. I am thinking its about time I got a new camera though, Im not happy with how grainy a lot of the photos i take are.

[nurbo]

Fluorite on Oxidised Siderite from Pike Law in Teesdale. 48 frame stacks using CombineZ.

[Pierre Joubert]

Hi Nurbo. Good to see some entries of you again. You have been quiet lately.

[nurbo]

Hi Pierre,
I have been quiet of late, its been a funny time, I had to have some surgery and stuff, the price of getting old and working for a living Im afraid.
Funny really I got a round to doing some photos the other day and they were all rubbish I must be out of the habit.
Here are a couple of interesting ones though. A couple of years ago I happened across a large chunk of Dolomite matrix veined with Marcasite and the odd Pyrite crystal, now on most of the samples I kept there are yellow crystals of what Im guessing is Sulphur (?), which I find amazing, I would never have believed enough Sulphur (?) would have been released to recrystallize in as little as two years. Here are a couple of not very good photo's.

[Philip G]

Hi David,

I've seen these develop on quite a few of these little marcasite/pyrite pieces and would also like to know what these pale yellow decomposition growths are. I was wondering if they could be copiapite?

Philip

[nurbo]

Hiya Phil,
Interesting possibility, Copiapite is soluble in H2O, whereas Sulphur isn't, so this should be an easy one. Ill do a test tomorrow and report back.

[nurbo]

So I managed to remove a small piece of Dolomite with some of the yellow crystals attached and put it in a small amount of warm water, then watched at 10x magnification as the yellow crystals fell off the Dolomite and dissolved, to ensure they werent just falling off I stirred the residue after removing the Dolomite with a small needle and they were definitely dissolved, no solids were left at all, damn good call Phil. Here is a better photo of the alleged Copiapite(?) I received last night forming on another sample from the same find.

[nurbo]

A few weeks ago I dragged myself around White Scar Caves in North Yorkshire, the guide gave me a section of Stalactite from the cave, which is hollow, I took some photos of the cave which I will ty and find. Also a Frazer's Hush Fluorite that Ive had for ages.

[nurbo]

Some more additions I got at Bakewell last October, a Baryte from Frizington sadly no mine with the label and from what Ive seen it could be from any one of a number of them, it was hard to photograph. The photos make it looked really dinged up but it isnt, it is fine condition, It has a label from Jon Mommers a fellow forum user, so Hi Jon, do you remember this Baryte?

A Faden Quartz from the Dara Ishmael Khan region of Pakistan,

And finally a Milpillas Malachite that looks like the Angel of the North it fits into the "Minerals that look like other stuff" section of my collection.

[nurbo]

Todays offering is a perfect little 5 mm twin of Fluorite on the ubiquitous oxidised Siderite from the west end hushes at Pike Law in Teesdale
and
Ankerite, Siderite, Sphalerite, Quartz from Brownley Hill, the Sphalerite on here are unusual in that they look like raisins, there are a couple of weird Sphalerite growths on there that look like mini stalactites..

[nurbo]

Celestite on Fluorite from Hammam Zriba in Tunisia


www(dot)danweinrich(dot)com(slash)tunisia(dot)htm

[Tom Mazanec]

You know, some of these specimens are so beautiful, they hurt the eyes...