Geographic Origin of Rubies?

[ilovegems95]

I read through the colored gems knowledge section and it didn't really go into geographic origin, especially with rubies. I am currently looking at two stones:

Tanzania:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-CT-NATURAL-UNHEATED-VIVID-INTENSE-RED-TANZANIA-RUBY-WITH-GLC-CERTIFY-/361378234727?hash=item5423d24167

Mozambique:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-95-Carat-Rare-Unheated-Deep-Pigeon-Blood-Red-Mozambique-Ruby-/331439943761?hash=item4d2b5c3051

My budget is 6k so if you can find better stones than these, please share. I would rather sacrifice size than treatment, it's gotta be unheated. Both of these stones are certified. Anyways, back to my main question, do either Tanzania or Mozambique hold any connotations good or bad in regards to ruby? The Mozambique one has a much better color and if there isn't any big geographic pluses/minuses on either of these stones and I can't find anything else better, I'm going to go for it. Thanks!

 

[drruby]

geo is sales fluff

why is burma better?

it's all AL2O3 ch

Oh burma has better color they claim

really so you never saw bad color on a burma stone?

oh moz is whatever

but nice size and color and clarity is coming out of mox

and all ruby mines eventually fade out

now you got greenland ruby fields opening up due to ice sheets melting

now to heat, every ruby is hit with heat in the mine field PERIOD

and if you ever went into a ruby pit you know the process

lots of guys looking for corundum rough

they find it hits water buckets

the pit boss loupes

the pit boss then does field heat just to look into the rough right

they can't view the rough after millions of years in dirt unless they heat the corundum crust to some degree

now you do have 3 levels of heat

field heat

low heat

high heat

you need to destroy the gem to claim no heat

you got a clean gem and you want to prove NO HEAT

ok let a lab drill huge craters in it so they can say no heat, the damage in testing for heat is so evasive it ruins stones IMO

huge .1mm to .03mm craters are being drilled into all gems now to say treated or not

so how many holes you want in your no heat stone?

how about 7 to 12 large pits in the girdle so a bs lab can say no heat

haha

for years heat was accepted by most ruby collectors it's only a new sales ploy now to create a new niche of rubies

we have tons of high heat rubies and tons of low heat rubies no one wants

so let's stop doing heat and create new niche of rubies

so how do you like your ruby?

no heat (recent fad last few years to create new niche)
low heat (been going on for hundreds of years)
high heat (been going on for ages)

now you do know we have to cert your flavor of ruby and the evasive lab drilling technique will leave 7 to 12 craters in your gem

but you need that cert just in case someone slipped in trace amounts of BERYLL

guess what beryll is being found now in the mine it's naturally in many rubies and saffires in trace elements

so other than beryll why are you putting tons of craters into nice stones?

WHY?

lead glass fill can be detected without evasive drilling or laser tests

so other than LGFF, so what if it was hit with tiny amounts of beryll, if it's crazy with beryll it should show up in non evasive tests

trace won't

so IMO all the new testing is so evasive that more damage is being done with tests than what's being found

lot's of beryll can be seen the RI of beryll is not ruby

so if it's loaded with beryll, RI can show

oh it's tiny beryll, so we have to drill craters to find trace beryll

really LAB? how about naturally occurring beryll

bottom line is

LOOK AT RUBIES IN PERSON

appreciate rubies without loupes for

color
life
clarity
size
cut

then maybe loupe

heat should be the last thing on your mind

why are you heat centric?

you bought a SALES PITCH to create a new niche of ruby

so you would rather get a low color ruby with no heat then do low level heat and pop the color?

oh you want hot color with no heat

ok, you better have a major budget

no heat and color today is huge $$$$

is it worth it?

not IMO

I understand it's a new sales pitch since I've been buying rubies in 5 decades now

 

[jordyonbass]

I can't say much for the Tanzania ruby or geo location, however I do know that a PS member had issues with the stones being listed by the Mozambique stone's vendor as being unheated and untreated when it wasn't the case. They didn't buy the product as it seemed too good to be true, which it was. Even though the vendor handled the situation honourably, I'd personally be wary since you're insisting on the stone being completely unheated and untreated.

 

[ilovegems95]

Fair enough, caution always but was the vendor's stones lab certified like these are?

 

[drruby]

last time I looked at stone from Chantanburi the dealer said it was ruby

I see the stone and very clean, too clean for a Ruby

I see tiny bubble inclusions not like the gas giants in LGFF rubies

So I shoot it, RI 1.71

A very rare huge VS clean deep red/purple SPINEL

worth thousands a carat

He was so happy it wan't LGFF ruby as he feared

It was one of the nicer spinels I've seen in 4+ carat range in a while

FACT a major gem dealer in Chantanburi is using all prison labor to cut his gems now

so who knows if anything on a Chantanburi cert is even real

I had him walk the stone through a major jeweler in Palm Beach to check the stores new 'gemologist'

Sure enough he loops and sees it's pretty clean and then scopes, he sees some tiny bubbles and starts blabbing about LGFF

So my guy leaves

I call my buddy that owns the shop

You know your new guy just let a 15K spinel walk out of your shop as LGFF ruby

He says no way

My guy brings stone back to owner who shoots RI and sure enough 1.71

SPINEL

Well the GIA hotshot is now jobless

THAT FAST

true story

 

[drruby]

It probably isn't proper to call them gas bubbles since they were TINY and probably microscopic octagons but when they are isolated and few I often say bubbles, but it's usually under much higher magnification not round at all.

Just so some 'experts' don't try to crunch me for syn spinel

Syn spinel is way higher RI than this

And the syn spinel that does have larger bubbles similar to LGFF bubbles in lgff you can loupe are usually not red spinel

Anyway, it was an exception spinel which in that size and clarity is very, very rare and very costly

A nice 'gem' IMO, but I'm not a big spinel collector, I like rubies so over the years I have often seen spinel mistaken as ruby

Wasn't it the Brit Crown collection that has a big spinel called a 'ruby' for centuries

So if you are into rubies as I am, you tend to see spinel often and you get to know what the real good red spinel looks like and with a RI score you know what is clearly spinel and ruby

 

[minousbijoux]

I read through the colored gems knowledge section and it didn't really go into geographic origin, especially with rubies. I am currently looking at two stones:

Tanzania:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-CT-NATURAL-UNHEATED-VIVID-INTENSE-RED-TANZANIA-RUBY-WITH-GLC-CERTIFY-/361378234727?hash=item5423d24167

Mozambique:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-95-Carat-Rare-Unheated-Deep-Pigeon-Blood-Red-Mozambique-Ruby-/331439943761?hash=item4d2b5c3051

My budget is 6k so if you can find better stones than these, please share. I would rather sacrifice size than treatment, it's gotta be unheated. Both of these stones are certified. Anyways, back to my main question, do either Tanzania or Mozambique hold any connotations good or bad in regards to ruby? The Mozambique one has a much better color and if there isn't any big geographic pluses/minuses on either of these stones and I can't find anything else better, I'm going to go for it. Thanks!

Bottom line: between those two origins, all things being equal, pick the better stone. In fact, I can't think of an instance where I wouldn't pick the best stone. But if you have some time, I might look around to see what else you can find.

 

[MollyMalone]

The color, clarity, and cut of a particular stone under consideration mean much more to me than the country of origin (and heat-only treatment is not a deal breaker in my book, but I realize we don't all share the same priorities-preferences).

IGI Mumbai has a very good reputation in the diamond dealer world; I haven't heard/seen any informed observations re their grading of colored gems... but have never had any reason to explore that. In any event, the IGI web site's Verify Your Report function does not have the report number shown on the 2nd listing (the 1.95 ct stone) in its database:
http://www.igiworldwide.com/verify.php
So were I you, I'd be be wanting to know why the IGI lab report is MIA.
IIRC, the Colored Stoners here who have reported on purchasing experiences with starruby have generally been happy; perhaps start another thread expressly asking for feedback on the outfit?

The Thai vendor who's listing the 2 ct ruby claims the stone has been graded by Chantaburi Gemological Laboratory, but does not post an image of the actual lab report or the report number. The only thing that Google quickly turned up about the lab is this:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/has-anyone-heard-of-chanthaburi-gemological-lab.198660/

P.S. My own "default setting" is not to put much faith in vendors' posted photos. Even if the pics have not been manipulated to make the colored gem look better than it really is, monitors-screens are not all color-calibrated the same. And there's no truly satisfactory substitute for seeing a stone up close and personal

So I fully expect to return any stone ordered online (which is why I won't purchase pricey stones from overseas vendors) -- and am therefore not disappointed should I decide it's going back, am happily surprised when it turns out to be a keeper

 

[MollyMalone]

Of the two you posted, ilovegems, I prefer the 1.95 ct over the 2 ct (and not just because I refuse to give my money to any vendor who claims absurdly inflated retail values)... but that's far from a warm endorsement. So, several questions for you:
* are you "under the gun" to get a stone asap?
* is there any chance you would reconsider your "it's gotta be unheated" stance?
* would you consider a spinel or must it be a ruby?

 

[drruby]

yep high end spinel a def alt to ruby

way easier on budget

magnesium and lead glass don't get along so the LGFF issue with rubies isn't in spinel

spinel doesn't break budgets usually until they get in the 4+ carat ranges then they are very rare if clean

plus you can often find a gem quality spinel in the back of some jewelers vault if they have been around a long time

it's usually the first major mistake many jewelers make, buying a gem quality spinel as high end ruby

years ago high end spinels weren't at the values they are now

so if you find an older dealer that made a spinel mistake years ago...

that's a great way to find high end expensive spinel for nothing today

just scrapping older jeweler vaults for their old mistakes

very few dealers deal with high end spinel and high end ruby has reached crazy values, it is an in vogue gem

also you often see nice spinels in exchanges in big settings mislabeled rubies

so get used to using a diamond tester on all red stones

find a huge clean ruby in an exchange and 90% will be 6.5mos on a tester garnet or maybe tanzanite

if it hits 8 it's a rare spinel

if it's 9, it's ruby and look for bubbles since 99% are lgff today

there are lots of dealers that see me coming and they close up their stand they won't let me look at red stones

since they know I always come back with bad news

look it's real ruby but see the bubbles in the loupe, it's lgff and not even a good one

or see the 6.5 it's garnet or tanzanite

but once in a while it's an 8 and then you tell the dealer he got stuck with spinel not ruby

tell him to remove the stone you're one of the few that buy spinel

bingo, he'll dump it for nothing if you want spinel

I myself don't usually touch spinel but since it has jumped in value I do now try to buy the best I can find but at crazy low prices since most dealers are clueless on spinel

they are almost all ruby centric

if it's red it has to be ruby

haha

okay, but SPINEL as the other poster mentioned is today a high end alternative red stone

but try to get over 4 carat and if you learn a few tricks you can find them cheap if you work at it

 

[pyramid]

Drruby

I was reading a post you replied to about unheated sapphire where you said the labs destroyed the stone in your opinion by drilling them looking to prove there was no beryllium. You said Ruby didn't have this problem so you would only buy Ruby. However above in this post you are saying that 99% of rubies are LGFF today and to look for bubbles. How easy is it to find an unheated.untreated Ruby then if that is the case and does it not make it a hard years long search. So 100% of sapphires are out due to heating or drilling to find unheated and 99% of rubies are out. So 1% of rubies are okay and would these not then be swallowed up by millionaires or prestige jewellers. How many have you seen as it sounds rare like Russian Alexandrite or Natural Green Diamond in top color?

 

[drruby]

Why do you think elite rubies are now over 1 Million a carat?

Size and clarity and color and REAL in the land of rubies means astronomical numbers.

I can walk into any exchange in SFL and you know what, almost no rubies, and the few rubies that are around, almost all have issues.

Many are high end lgff, some may be spinel if they've been in a case for a long time and there's garnet as ruby too.

So where are all the large clean rubies?

GONE

Yeah you can see them on ebay, GIA says no heat, yawn.

Show me a high end ruby on eBay with SSEF or Lubelin, almost NOTHING.

You see junk with gia and agl certs coming from Thailand.

If the stones were worth anything they would have been sent to Lubelin.

Now you can find some minor very nice rubies around, 1 to maybe 1.5 Carat

But once you hit 2Ct range and good color and clarity, there are so few stones around it's scary.

 

[pyramid]

Thanks drruby I was meaning smaller size under 2 carat so I was looking at your post differently.

We don't see many large rubies being bought here. I suppose getting even the best color on a large Ruby would be astronomical in cost and very rare to find even before getting into Clarity questions. A problem many many will not have so the clarity for me if I was buying a Ruby would be eye clean even with pits for testing it was unheated as colour would come first then if it was unheated and a good size which is affordable and I suspect to be picky over it would mean I would have to lose on color as chances are I may only find two beautiful colored stones. Also to see them with my own eyes would be a must so too expensive to buy and return therefore using money that could be in the actual Ruby.

I know many people are rich but surely due to rarity of good colored large stones this testing method is only going to affect few of the many rich people. Even then with their large perfect Ruby would it take much off to repolish the girdle to remove the pits left by the testing. If I were a millionnaire to reduce my 15.79 carat Ruby to 15.73 might not bother me but then how much would that 6 points really be worth and would proof not mean more to me; I suspect it would at that price point. This testing is only for the elite to worry about not most people who are lucky to own a fairly good Ruby in my opinion.

 

[treasurehunter]

both stones are not so good, very hard to buy a ruby based on a photo the best ones can look bad on photos and the worst can look good so I wouldn't touch a ruby without seeing it in person getting a lab report independently - IE you pay for it because the others can be fakes

 

[PieAreSquared]

P.S. My own "default setting" is not to put much faith in vendors' posted photos. Even if the pics have not been manipulated to make the colored gem look better than it really is, monitors-screens are not all color-calibrated the same. And there's no truly satisfactory substitute for seeing a stone up close and personal

So I fully expect to return any stone ordered online (which is why I won't purchase pricey stones from overseas vendors) -- and am therefore not disappointed should I decide it's going back, am happily surprised when it turns out to be a keeper )

Excellent advice Molly!
Additionally, I put no stock in photos shot in "daylight" either. It is widely assumed that "natural light", sunlight, is standardized. In reality, sunlight differs in intensity between Bangkok and Sydney, Los Angeles and Nova Scotia, which naturally affects color.

 

[drruby]

It is widely assumed that "natural light", sunlight, is standardized. In reality, sunlight differs in intensity between Bangkok and Sydney, Los Angeles and Nova Scotia, which naturally affects color.

You know a guy once got a Nobel prize for saying that, that the speed of light is not constant in the Universe.

So what do you think, does light travel faster in Bangkok or Los Angeles?

I hear it usually slows down a little around event horizons around say a black hole, etc.

Maybe the smog in LA and especially Bejing can make sunlight different?

You might want to do a paper so you can get a Nobel prize on how much SUNLIGHT is different around the world.

Have you notice a change in the color of rubies around say December 22nd when earth is it's farthest from SOL.

And do rubies shine brighter around say June 22nd we the earth is the closest to SOL.

Now I just read a paper by a buddy of mine, it was about the Universe is teeming with life due to the Elliptical Orbit Effect on Plate Tectonics on all objects that have an elliptical orbit. The little directional nudges elliptical orbits create as they change direction around their star makes the cores of planets and moons have a pulse or rhythm to it's core so it kick starts cores to become lively cores compared to no action in a core. A living or live core that has the dual beat of an elliptical orbit is what creates volcanism throughout the Universe.

Now volcanism is why you have gems, since that is what creates plate tectonics and that is where pockets of gems are always found since that is the natural furnace of a planet that can create a mineral pocket rich area and produce these little colored things called gemstones.

Oh, the solstices lines on earth have been traced with the work in this paper to not only show where every gem mine is located on earth but it shows where the major quakes on earth all occur as well, so the elliptical orbits have two solstice points that actually created gems and quakes and I was wondering if you can view your rubies at these times of the years and then maybe do a nice paper on how you have detected a noticeable difference in gemstones at these tiny windows of the year. Maybe you can see if windows on gems look better in these windows as well.

Oh when you have volcanism you have magna reaching the floor surfact of the oceans and you take H2O and put some heat from a lively core spewing out of smoker stacks at the bottom of oceans and presto magico you have common H2O becoming the basic amino acids of life all due to volcanism.

Life
Gems
Quakes

It's all tied to EOE theory and last I heard that guy said the that SOL is not constant either. (SOL is our sun or in physics Speed Of Light).

I met an alien once he said he used huge synthetic gemstones to stabilize his FTL drive, it seems aliens prize 5 foot wide synthetic gems for their technology, since the natural inclusions in gems usually mean a WARP drive goes crazy.

 

[iLander]

You know a guy once got a Nobel prize for saying that, that the speed of light is not constant in the Universe.

So what do you think, does light travel faster in Bangkok or Los Angeles?

I hear it usually slows down a little around event horizons around say a black hole, etc.

Maybe the smog in LA and especially Bejing can make sunlight different?

You might want to do a paper so you can get a Nobel prize on how much SUNLIGHT is different around the world.

Have you notice a change in the color of rubies around say December 22nd when earth is it's farthest from SOL.

And do rubies shine brighter around say June 22nd we the earth is the closest to SOL.

Now I just read a paper by a buddy of mine, it was about the Universe is teeming with life due to the Elliptical Orbit Effect on Plate Tectonics on all objects that have an elliptical orbit. The little directional nudges elliptical orbits create as they change direction around their star makes the cores of planets and moons have a pulse or rhythm to it's core so it kick starts cores to become lively cores compared to no action in a core. A living or live core that has the dual beat of an elliptical orbit is what creates volcanism throughout the Universe.

Now volcanism is why you have gems, since that is what creates plate tectonics and that is where pockets of gems are always found since that is the natural furnace of a planet that can create a mineral pocket rich area and produce these little colored things called gemstones.

Oh, the solstices lines on earth have been traced with the work in this paper to not only show where every gem mine is located on earth but it shows where the major quakes on earth all occur as well, so the elliptical orbits have two solstice points that actually created gems and quakes and I was wondering if you can view your rubies at these times of the years and then maybe do a nice paper on how you have detected a noticeable difference in gemstones at these tiny windows of the year. Maybe you can see if windows on gems look better in these windows as well.

Oh when you have volcanism you have magna reaching the floor surfact of the oceans and you take H2O and put some heat from a lively core spewing out of smoker stacks at the bottom of oceans and presto magico you have common H2O becoming the basic amino acids of life all due to volcanism.

Life
Gems
Quakes

It's all tied to EOE theory and last I heard that guy said the that SOL is not constant either. (SOL is our sun or in physics Speed Of Light).

I met an alien once he said he used huge synthetic gemstones to stabilize his FTL drive, it seems aliens prize 5 foot wide synthetic gems for their technology, since the natural inclusions in gems usually mean a WARP drive goes crazy.

Well,you're wrong. Sunlight, as all light, acts as both a partical and a wave. As the wave is bent, the wavelength changes, which effects the light. Or do you believe that the sun is the same at noon and at 5 pm? The wave is bent as it travels across the globe (across different longitudes and latitudes) and it changes not just from time of day, but from place to place. I have seen this in real life when dealing with gemstones and corresponding with cutters at different locations.

Using lots of random unassociated facts does not impress us, nor does it make you right.

 

[Roger Dery]

Well,you're wrong. Sunlight, as all light, acts as both a partical and a wave. As the wave is bent, the wavelength changes, which effects the light. Or do you believe that the sun is the same at noon and at 5 pm? The wave is bent as it travels across the globe (across different longitudes and latitudes) and it changes not just from time of day, but from place to place. I have seen this in real life when dealing with gemstones and corresponding with cutters at different locations.

Using lots of random unassociated facts does not impress us, nor does it make you right.

Amen to that!

 

[drruby]

You know a guy once got a Nobel prize for saying that, that the speed of light is not constant in the Universe.

So what do you think, does light travel faster in Bangkok or Los Angeles?

I hear it usually slows down a little around event horizons around say a black hole, etc.

Maybe the smog in LA and especially Bejing can make sunlight different?

You might want to do a paper so you can get a Nobel prize on how much SUNLIGHT is different around the world.

Have you notice a change in the color of rubies around say December 22nd when earth is it's farthest from SOL.

And do rubies shine brighter around say June 22nd we the earth is the closest to SOL.

Now I just read a paper by a buddy of mine, it was about the Universe is teeming with life due to the Elliptical Orbit Effect on Plate Tectonics on all objects that have an elliptical orbit. The little directional nudges elliptical orbits create as they change direction around their star makes the cores of planets and moons have a pulse or rhythm to it's core so it kick starts cores to become lively cores compared to no action in a core. A living or live core that has the dual beat of an elliptical orbit is what creates volcanism throughout the Universe.

Now volcanism is why you have gems, since that is what creates plate tectonics and that is where pockets of gems are always found since that is the natural furnace of a planet that can create a mineral pocket rich area and produce these little colored things called gemstones.

Oh, the solstices lines on earth have been traced with the work in this paper to not only show where every gem mine is located on earth but it shows where the major quakes on earth all occur as well, so the elliptical orbits have two solstice points that actually created gems and quakes and I was wondering if you can view your rubies at these times of the years and then maybe do a nice paper on how you have detected a noticeable difference in gemstones at these tiny windows of the year. Maybe you can see if windows on gems look better in these windows as well.

Oh when you have volcanism you have magna reaching the floor surfact of the oceans and you take H2O and put some heat from a lively core spewing out of smoker stacks at the bottom of oceans and presto magico you have common H2O becoming the basic amino acids of life all due to volcanism.

Life
Gems
Quakes

It's all tied to EOE theory and last I heard that guy said the that SOL is not constant either. (SOL is our sun or in physics Speed Of Light).

I met an alien once he said he used huge synthetic gemstones to stabilize his FTL drive, it seems aliens prize 5 foot wide synthetic gems for their technology, since the natural inclusions in gems usually mean a WARP drive goes crazy.

Well,you're wrong. Sunlight, as all light, acts as both a partical and a wave. As the wave is bent, the wavelength changes, which effects the light. Or do you believe that the sun is the same at noon and at 5 pm? The wave is bent as it travels across the globe (across different longitudes and latitudes) and it changes not just from time of day, but from place to place. I have seen this in real life when dealing with gemstones and corresponding with cutters at different locations.

Using lots of random unassociated facts does not impress us, nor does it make you right.

Like I said IF you think sunlight is not sunlight write a paper, get MickeyMouseU to publish it and then have some I bought my PHD at this bogus U PHD's submit your paper to win a Nobel prize on a new theory in sunlight.

haha

And what do you think, do aliens prefer syn cg to power their tech over natural?

I think they prefer syn due to IT IS SUPERIOR to natural CG.

 

[Lady_Disdain]

The quality of light is such an amazing phenomena. One Mahenge looked beautiful in my tropical sunlight but dead in a New England winter. Pure white walls is pretty much the rule here (except for, perhaps, a feature wall) since coloured walls are overwhelming. In higher latitudes, a white wall can look dingy and greyish, while a coloured wall will look bright and cheery.

However, the difference in distance to the sun because of the Earth's elliptical orbit has nothing to do with it. Earth's aphelion (maximum distance from the sun) is actually on July 4th, while perihelion (minimum distance) is January 3rd. It has to do with the Earth's tilt in relationship to its orbit, just like the seasons, as we all learned in geography class. As each hemisphere tilts away or towards the sun, it receives more or less direct light. Also, at greater angles, the light will have a longer pathway through the atmosphere and, hence, be subject to more absorption.

December 22nd and June 22nd are the solstices, not perihelion and aphelion.

Do say hi to your alien friend.

 

[PieAreSquared]

The quality of light is such an amazing phenomena. One Mahenge looked beautiful in my tropical sunlight but dead in a New England winter. Pure white walls is pretty much the rule here (except for, perhaps, a feature wall) since coloured walls are overwhelming. In higher latitudes, a white wall can look dingy and greyish, while a coloured wall will look bright and cheery.

However, the difference in distance to the sun because of the Earth's elliptical orbit has nothing to do with it. Earth's aphelion (maximum distance from the sun) is actually on July 4th, while perihelion (minimum distance) is January 3rd. It has to do with the Earth's tilt in relationship to its orbit, just like the seasons, as we all learned in geography class. As each hemisphere tilts away or towards the sun, it receives more or less direct light. Also, at greater angles, the light will have a longer pathway through the atmosphere and, hence, be subject to more absorption.

December 22nd and June 22nd are the solstices, not perihelion and aphelion.

Do say hi to your alien friend.

Well said!

And since the jab was apparently aimed at me, I am just going to say look up "Purkinje Shift" to the...ahem... "Dr"(?)...

My apologies to ilovegems95 I didn't mean to derail your thread! If you read the intro to colored stone thread you know color is king, all other things being equal, IMO get the most beautiful stone -regardless of geographic origin.

 

[minousbijoux]

The quality of light is such an amazing phenomena. One Mahenge looked beautiful in my tropical sunlight but dead in a New England winter. Pure white walls is pretty much the rule here (except for, perhaps, a feature wall) since coloured walls are overwhelming. In higher latitudes, a white wall can look dingy and greyish, while a coloured wall will look bright and cheery.

However, the difference in distance to the sun because of the Earth's elliptical orbit has nothing to do with it. Earth's aphelion (maximum distance from the sun) is actually on July 4th, while perihelion (minimum distance) is January 3rd. It has to do with the Earth's tilt in relationship to its orbit, just like the seasons, as we all learned in geography class. As each hemisphere tilts away or towards the sun, it receives more or less direct light. Also, at greater angles, the light will have a longer pathway through the atmosphere and, hence, be subject to more absorption.

December 22nd and June 22nd are the solstices, not perihelion and aphelion.

Do say hi to your alien friend.

Well said!

And since the jab was apparently aimed at me, I am just going to say look up "Purkinje Shift" to the...ahem... "Dr"(?)...

My apologies to ilovegems95 I didn't mean to derail your thread! If you read the intro to colored stone thread you know color is king, all other things being equal, IMO get the most beautiful stone -regardless of geographic origin.

Thank you for teaching me something new! You are always helpful, Piearesquared!

 

[Lady_Disdain]

The quality of light is such an amazing phenomena. One Mahenge looked beautiful in my tropical sunlight but dead in a New England winter. Pure white walls is pretty much the rule here (except for, perhaps, a feature wall) since coloured walls are overwhelming. In higher latitudes, a white wall can look dingy and greyish, while a coloured wall will look bright and cheery.

However, the difference in distance to the sun because of the Earth's elliptical orbit has nothing to do with it. Earth's aphelion (maximum distance from the sun) is actually on July 4th, while perihelion (minimum distance) is January 3rd. It has to do with the Earth's tilt in relationship to its orbit, just like the seasons, as we all learned in geography class. As each hemisphere tilts away or towards the sun, it receives more or less direct light. Also, at greater angles, the light will have a longer pathway through the atmosphere and, hence, be subject to more absorption.

December 22nd and June 22nd are the solstices, not perihelion and aphelion.

Do say hi to your alien friend.

Well said!

And since the jab was apparently aimed at me, I am just going to say look up "Purkinje Shift" to the...ahem... "Dr"(?)...

My apologies to ilovegems95 I didn't mean to derail your thread! If you read the intro to colored stone thread you know color is king, all other things being equal, IMO get the most beautiful stone -regardless of geographic origin.

Sorry, it wasn't meant as a jab at all. I just wanted to mention the two main consequences of the Earth's tilt: area of incidence and absorbtion.

 

[PieAreSquared]

Not you Lady D! You put it very succinctly. I meant the 'jab' by Dr. Troll.

 

[iLander]

The quality of light is such an amazing phenomena. One Mahenge looked beautiful in my tropical sunlight but dead in a New England winter. Pure white walls is pretty much the rule here (except for, perhaps, a feature wall) since coloured walls are overwhelming. In higher latitudes, a white wall can look dingy and greyish, while a coloured wall will look bright and cheery.

However, the difference in distance to the sun because of the Earth's elliptical orbit has nothing to do with it. Earth's aphelion (maximum distance from the sun) is actually on July 4th, while perihelion (minimum distance) is January 3rd. It has to do with the Earth's tilt in relationship to its orbit, just like the seasons, as we all learned in geography class. As each hemisphere tilts away or towards the sun, it receives more or less direct light. Also, at greater angles, the light will have a longer pathway through the atmosphere and, hence, be subject to more absorption.

December 22nd and June 22nd are the solstices, not perihelion and aphelion.

Do say hi to your alien friend.

I'm pretty sure Lady Disdain just said I was right, but I can't quite tell . . .

 

[drruby]

Actually in 4000 or so years the equinoxes will be the solstices

http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/perihelion-aphelion-solstice.html

 

[Lady_Disdain]

It is interesting that this shift must be considered in archaeological interpretations and has even been used to help date structures.