Star Sapphire
Hardness 9 specific gravity 3.8-4.05
Refractive index 1.76-1.78
Wear: excellent durability
Star Sapphire is a special variety of sapphire. It has the "star effect". Under the point light source, you can see six white reflective light bands like star light.
Like sapphire, starlight sapphire has many colors. In addition to the most common blue starlight sapphire, there are also white starlight sapphire and pink starlight sapphire.
The cause of starlight effect
Due to the crystal growth characteristics of sapphire, there are sometimes three groups of "rutile fibrous inclusions" arranged in parallel at an angle of 120 degrees in the interior of sapphire. The growth direction of these three groups of inclusions is perpendicular to the crystal axis. When the gemstone is cut along the crystal axis, it will show six stars on the arc surface.
The origin of starlight Sapphire
Burma Mogok produces the best "Blue Star Sapphire" and often has a higher saturation of blue. Sri Lanka is also an important source of "Blue Star Sapphire".
The value of starlight Sapphire
In the international market, the carat unit price of starlight sapphire is generally lower than that of faceted Sapphire, but also lower than that of star ruby.
When choosing "star sapphire", we should first pay attention to whether the star line is in the middle of the arc, whether the star line is obvious, and whether the color saturation of the gem is good.
Myanmar is still the highest value producing area, and the highest grade color is called "Royal Blue" commercially.
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