blueyblue
starting to shine!
Member since November 2021
Posts: 47
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Post by blueyblue on Nov 5, 2021 20:13:10 GMT -5
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Post by Son Of Beach on Nov 5, 2021 20:21:25 GMT -5
Very nice.
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Post by rockjunquie on Nov 5, 2021 20:35:00 GMT -5
Dang! That's really nice. I didn't know we had blue quartz. Have you ever found any Virginia Amazonite?
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Nov 5, 2021 20:40:10 GMT -5
I don't know if this will help, but here's an article that bobby1 wrote for Rock and Gem Magazine on cutting a cat's eye obsidian. I would think the technique would be similar for other materials. |
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blueyblue
starting to shine!
Member since November 2021
Posts: 47
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Post by blueyblue on Nov 5, 2021 21:09:34 GMT -5
Dang! That's really nice. I didn't know we had blue quartz. Have you ever found any Virginia Amazonite? I have my eye open for amazonite. I can not find a good picture of star blue quartz. It's the Alabama state gemstone and no very good pictures on the internet. Some people say it's a unicorn. The marketable varieties are actually dyed rose quartz. I'd like to see the real thing. The Mt. Rogers area was an ancient volcano range. I have some pretty rhyolite (lava) I'll put up in another post. That is about the toughest rock I have ever put a hammer to. I cut it in my 14" rock saw and the edges were sharp as razors. |
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blueyblue
starting to shine!
Member since November 2021
Posts: 47
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Post by blueyblue on Nov 5, 2021 21:12:02 GMT -5
I thought there was a chance it might glow like yooperlite. I bought a UV flashlight. but no luck. |
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Post by rockjunquie on Nov 5, 2021 21:13:51 GMT -5
Dang! That's really nice. I didn't know we had blue quartz. Have you ever found any Virginia Amazonite? I have my eye open for amazonite. I can not find a good picture of star blue quartz. It's the Alabama state gemstone and no very good pictures on the internet. I just looked, too. Plenty of fakes. |
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blueyblue
starting to shine!
Member since November 2021
Posts: 47
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Post by blueyblue on Nov 5, 2021 21:25:22 GMT -5
Here's a slice. It changes colors with orange and violet like sunstone (sodalite), but a geologist says it is blue quartz. The black is titanium-oxide rutilations according to him. I'm getting this stuff out of very deep cut granite with veins in the New River Valley. We had a pretty significant earthquake event in Sparta, NC last year. Geologically speaking, the igneous granite bed fractured from time to time and molten minerals pushed through about 750 million years ago. The blue quartz variety is metamorphic.  |
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quartzilla
Cave Dweller 
Member since April 2020
Posts: 1,240
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Post by quartzilla on Nov 5, 2021 21:32:41 GMT -5
Neat material you got there. Definitely something you don’t see every day. I’d be tickled pink (blue) to run across that out in the wild!
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blueyblue
starting to shine!
Member since November 2021
Posts: 47
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Post by blueyblue on Nov 5, 2021 21:35:10 GMT -5
I have my eye open for amazonite. I can not find a good picture of star blue quartz. It's the Alabama state gemstone and no very good pictures on the internet. I just looked, too. Plenty of fakes. I'm in Sparta, NC. Where are you? |
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Post by rockjunquie on Nov 5, 2021 21:47:03 GMT -5
I just looked, too. Plenty of fakes. I'm in Sparta, NC. Where are you? I'm in Virginia Beach. No rocks here. I have camped in the Mount Rodgers area. Didn't know you could find anything there. |
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Post by rockjunquie on Nov 5, 2021 21:49:44 GMT -5
Some of your pieces remind me of Blue John Fluorite from the UK. The colors.
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blueyblue
starting to shine!
Member since November 2021
Posts: 47
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Post by blueyblue on Nov 5, 2021 22:34:06 GMT -5
I'm in Sparta, NC. Where are you? I'm in Virginia Beach. No rocks here. I have camped in the Mount Rodgers area. Didn't know you could find anything there. Very Nice fossils along the outer banks of NC. I have a fossil whale's tooth. In North Myrtle Beach, SC you can find obsidian "tears". They look like polished drops of tar until you hold them up to the light. This Facebook friend is finding mammoth tusks in Missouri. He has several mammoth bones and teeth in his collection: www.facebook.com/100064033182967/videos/pcb.132777325533373/132773432200429 |
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Post by rockjunquie on Nov 5, 2021 22:53:30 GMT -5
You can find fossils on the banks of the James River, too. I don't know about shark's teeth, though. Finding a mammoth tusk would be awesome!
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RWA3006
Cave Dweller
Member since March 2009
Posts: 4,633 
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Post by RWA3006 on Nov 6, 2021 10:38:25 GMT -5
Starguy is our guy when it comes to asterisms. I'll bet he can help.
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LazerFlash
Cave Dweller
The more they over-think the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the toilet.
Member since September 2021
Posts: 550
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Post by LazerFlash on Nov 6, 2021 14:49:28 GMT -5
In North Myrtle Beach, SC you can find obsidian "tears". They look like polished drops of tar until you hold them up to the light.  |
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Post by Starguy on Nov 6, 2021 22:43:35 GMT -5
Thanks for the shoutout Randy RWA3006 blueyblue In my opinion, asterism will only show on a curved or domed surface. Some cats eyes will show on a flat surface. I love rocks that exhibit asterism. I have some rose quartz that shows asterism and it doesn’t surprise me that other quartz varieties will show stars. Rutile, (titanium dioxide) is often contributing to asterism. gemfeller is the true expert and he can provide more information on this amazing optical effect. I think asterism interests me so much because the stars can seem to float above the surface of the rock or on concave specimens below the surface. The effect is all parallax and each of your eyes will see the star in a different position on the stone. There is no way short of stereo-oscopy to show this in a photo. I can’t wait to see what you do with this material. It’s beautiful. |
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blueyblue
starting to shine!
Member since November 2021
Posts: 47
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Post by blueyblue on Nov 7, 2021 3:58:27 GMT -5
In North Myrtle Beach, SC you can find obsidian "tears". They look like polished drops of tar until you hold them up to the light.  The strand has changed . We used to find them in parking lot areas around Ocean Drive and Cherry Grove beaches. I remember a rental beach house that had them everywhere in the drive-under garage. Megladon teeth have been found around the Murrels Inlet and Garden City areas whenever they dredge the inlets. |
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blueyblue
starting to shine!
Member since November 2021
Posts: 47
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Post by blueyblue on Nov 7, 2021 4:01:33 GMT -5
Thanks for the shoutout Randy RWA3006 blueyblue In my opinion, asterism will only show on a curved or domed surface. Some cats eyes will show on a flat surface. I love rocks that exhibit asterism. I have some rose quartz that shows asterism and it doesn’t surprise me that other quartz varieties will show stars. Rutile, (titanium dioxide) is often contributing to asterism. gemfeller is the true expert and he can provide more information on this amazing optical effect. I think asterism interests me so much because the stars can seem to float above the surface of the rock or on concave specimens below the surface. The effect is all parallax and each of your eyes will see the star in a different position on the stone. There is no way short of stereo-oscopy to show this in a photo. I can’t wait to see what you do with this material. It’s beautiful. I have one piece of light blue quartz with flash in every direction it seems like. I'll have to shoot a video of it. It's still in the rough tumbler. I can't get over the color of this stuff when it's darker. It's like tanzanite or royal blue sapphire. Some pieces border on labradorite. BTW: asterism is what makes the stars twinkle, and it gives the sky a royal blue color. It's Rayleigh scattering. |
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