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Optical Mineralogy with Kyle Trostle

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Date and Time

Sunday, September 20, 2026, 1:00 PM until 3:00 PM

Location

In the Shop
3600 Clipper Mill Road
Baltimore, MD 21211
USA

Event Contact(s)

Kay Kron
classes@gemcuttersguild.com

Registration Info

Registration is required

Payment In Full In Advance Only

Registration cancellations will be accepted until Saturday, September 12, 2026 at 12:01 AM

Capacity

5 Total Slots

4 Available Slot(s)

About this event

Description: We can use light transmitted through a mineral to better identify, orient, and understand minerals. One of the tools useful in investigating how light interacts with a mineral is the polariscope. In this course we'll build a simple polariscope to help in understanding how a polariscope works, and then use the polariscope to investigate the optical properties of mineral specimens. In addition to the provided mineral specimens for exploration, bring your own transparent minerals or gems to investigate as well. You'll leave the course with a simple polariscope and a better understanding of minerals! No experience needed, but a previous gem ID course is certainly useful.

Start and end times: September 20, 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Materials Fee: $30.00

Materials Fee Includes: Homemade polariscope (light stand, 2"x2" linear polarizers, marble), muscovite plate, smoky quartz sphere