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Radioactive Rocks and Rough Russian

A rambling look at some more of my radioactive mineral collection. I have a terrible time with pronouncing mineral names. I kind of hope that you do, too. I kept my Russian to a minimum to spare you all.

I’m getting a Russian made geiger counter and software and will report on the same. Said to be Mac compatible.

The video for that counter is below this video. I’m not sure if the woman narrating in English is from Russia but she has a lilting accent all the same.

Made in Russia. What could go wrong? At least it is modern and not using a specialized cable or a serial port to connect to a computer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3AW5-i7Xlg

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Carnotite Musings — Experimental Video

I dislike the time and bother of video production but I am trying a one-take approach with my iPhone. If this works out I may put more videos up. This video on carnotite is unscripted and only meant to try out lights and sound.

I forgot to add is that the counter with a probe works well for detecting on the ground. You just dangle the probe above the ground by the cord as you walk. Maybe not the most elegant way to test alluvium but you can’t possibly test the ground while walking around with the other machine.

There may be a handheld geiger counter compatible with the Mac, able to download data to same. It’s Russian but only $249. I have ordered one and will post results:

Soeks Quantum Professional Geiger Counter / Radiation Detector
http://www.dosimeter4you.com/geiger-counter-radiation-detector-soeks-quantum-p-94.html

 
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The Drill

The Drill. Checking my recent road trip finds with my Geiger counter, handheld metal detector, and my two UV lamps. Just to see if anything else is going on besides the reasons I originally picked them up.

One piece under shortwave fluoresces a nice green. May have found some common opal. This was on my last stop, when I pulled off the highway on a whim to walk the desert floor. At first I thought it was an agate because one side displays a translucent quality along with a wavy banding. When I got home, though, with my tools, I remembered I had seen something like it.

That piece matches the color, luster and the fluorescence of Arizona opal I recently got in trade from rock and mineral dealer Rolf Luetcke. Although simply white, the rock comes alive under shortwave UV. Not the intensity or brightness of Rolf’s piece, that material is top-notch, but the exact same color under the lamp.

Update: Not opal. A steel nail doesn’t scratch it, but a nail scratches the opal Rolf supplied. The piece must be chalcedony or agate, or whatever you want to call cryptocrystalline quartz. Hmm. What are the odds that I would find something that looks exactly like something else and fluoresces just like it as well. At least I know a place to search for fluorescent agates. The agates I have don’t fluoresce, certainly nothing green.