Shortwave and Longwave Ultraviolet Light Lamp

This economical shortwave ultraviolet fluorescent lamp now also includes a longwave ultraviolet LED lamp so you can experiment with both shortwave and longwave ultraviolet light! Use its fluorescent bulbs to see and examine the luminescence of your mineral collection that's invisible to the human eye.

Shortwave ultraviolet light is just the right wavelength to vibrantly illuminate the different colors of many fluorescent minerals that you collect. Some minerals fluoresce, or glow, under shortwave ultraviolet light, others under longwave ultraviolet light, and others fluoresce differently under both! Some specimens fluoresce vibrantly green or orange, some are black with yellow speckles and some change to a pale yellow or pink.

Rocks and minerals that have fluorescent properties include:

• Scheelite
• ​Fluorite
• ​Calcite
• Willemite
• and more!

This economical and portable UV LED light provides both shortwave UV light and longwave UV light, making it a great investment for any mineral collector or hobbyist! The high-quality lamp produces UV light at different wavelengths:

• it produces fluorescent shortwave light at a wattage of 4 watts and 254nm wavelength
• it produces LED longwave light at 375nm wavelength

Simply provide four AA batteries and begin experimenting with your fluorescent light! For best results, use in a darkened room and hold the lamp 2-4 inches away from the rock specimen. We also have a mini LED flashlight with blacklight (a kind of UV light) for your mineral explorations.

Connecting the Bulb: See our short video on how to connect the bulb properly >>

Note: UV light (ultraviolet radiation) is the part of sun light that causes sunburns. Never look directly at UV bulbs. Wear UV filtering goggles or safety glasses if using this low-level ultraviolet light source for extended periods.

Quick Science Investigation: Are you wondering if your safety goggles, sunglasses, or regular glasses will help protect your eyes against low-level ultraviolet light like our battery-operated UV lights? Many of these types of glasses have lenses made out of polycarbonate, a natural low-level UV light filter. Test your goggles or glasses by first shining a UV (shortwave or longwave) light on a mineral or other object that fluoresces brightly. Then put the UV lamp inside the goggles or glasses and shine it on the same fluorescing object through the lens. What happens? The object will no longer fluoresce where the UV light has been filtered by polycarbonate lenses!