Clear Quartz Crystal Lightly Polished

A fantastic piece of transparent quartz from our collection of rocks and minerals.

In its purest form quartz is colourless and transparent.

The largest face of this quartz crystal resembles a window that enables you to look through a naturally occurring solid that took millions of years to evolve.

The inside is virtually free from fractures, inclusions or other anomalies.

Although this piece is "crystal clear" it doesn't appear to be in our photo.

The lens of a camera can change the appearance of transparent quartz because it refracts light. When light enters the lens it's bent and focused onto the camera's sensor.

The degree to which the light is bent (or refracted) depends not only on the lens but also the object and the angle from which it was photographed.

With the mineral being transparent it allows light to pass through without being scattered or absorbed.

As the camera captures the quartz the light is bent (refracted).  That's why the inside of the mineral shows some distortion.

The last two photos were taken in natural daylight with a very slow shutter speed.