Diopside (fine crystal)

Item Description

A notably fine quality crystallized example of Diopside from this historic locality in Russia, best known for its blue Apatite crystals. These Diopsides are rare, and seldom seen in such textbook euhedral examples. This crystal has notably smooth, sharp and well-formed faces with good luster and slight internal gemminess showing a deep green hue internally. It's completely undamaged on the top/display side, and even the base of the crystal is partially crystallized, so it's close to being a "floater". It's hard to convey the quality in a video, but this is a GOOD one, and if you've ever wanted one of these seldom-seen Diopsides, do not pass this one up. Specimen weight is 19.4 grams.
From the collection of Armon McPherson, a retired physicist, now living in New Mexico. Armon received his PhD from North Carolina State University in 1985, and worked at the laser laboratory at the University of Illinois at Circle Center. In the summer of 1997, Armon moved to the Argonne National Laboratory where he worked at the Advanced Photon Source, then the world’s largest synchrotron facility dedicated as an x-ray source. In 2001, he was asked to join a team at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque to conduct laser research for DARPA. Finally, staying within Sandia, he transferred to the Z Facility, the world’s most powerful x-ray facility. He retired in the spring of 2017. Armon's introduction to mineral collecting came in the 1980s during graduate school when he attended his first mineral show. He took up the hobby of faceting gems, and focused his early collection on gem crystals, and later transitioned into collecting non-gem species. We are proud to offer specimens from his worldwide mineral collection here for you.