Well, It is beginning to look like short wave UV is preferable, but not easily created. (Short wave UV LEDs seem to be made from unobtanium.) I've found some good short-wave UV lights, but they do require more exotic materials - as Mark Minton pointed out - and are a lot more expensive and not LED driven. So a less than ideal direction is probably where I'm heading - trying to find the shortest wave UV LEDs available (350nm?) and combining a load of them wired densely together in a hand held "gun" composed of a project box with some kind of handle attached for cave crawling and path illumination. (Oh, and does clear polycarbonate or 'Plexiglas' block UV light as glass does?) Thanks for all the contributions! -WaV
On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 10:16 AM, Minton, Mark <mmin...@nmhu.edu> wrote: > Bob Cowell said: > > >A few years ago I bought a couple of uv hand lights during Halloween. > > And Mary Thiesse said: > > >Are led UV lights as harmful to the eyes as the flor. tube UV light? I'm > surprised that they would make a clip on for your cap. > > Almost all of the generally available, inexpensive UV lamps are the > weaker, long-wavelength variety. These work for seeing some fluorescent > things like bugs and black-light posters, but they are not good for most > fluorescent minerals. The short-wavelength lamps are more expensive and > harder to find, mainly because short wave UV is much more harmful to eyes > and because it will not penetrate ordinary glass, so special (and expensive) > quartz optics are required. > > Mark Minton > > > > >
