The Halley’s Comet Opal is the largest uncut black opal in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It is so named because it was unearthed in 1986, a year when Halley’s Comet could be seen from Earth.
On November 3, 1986, five Australian miners climbed Lunatic Hill (situated in a small Australian town by the name of Lightning Ridge). Called so by the locals for the mental state, anyone would be in to dig there.
Diverting from the common practice of digging for opals at the depth of 2 to 5 metres, this team (that later took the name The Lunatic Hill Syndicate) burrowed 20 metres into the Earth’s crust.
That day, the group unearthed a fist size, record-breaking opal. They named it Halley’s Comet Opal, after the comet by the same name, which was passing by the Earth and could be seen in the sky that day.
This gemstone is a marvel. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is the largest uncut black opal in the world.
While diamonds, rubies, among other precious gemstones are often indistinguishably similar, no two opals are completely identical. This uniqueness can be credited to a characteristic called play of colour. A simplified explanation of this trait is that it refers to the way colours change within a particular stone as it is tilted or rotated.
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