@Destructdisc I’m making two separate comments because I realized I’m coming off as defensive and possibly aggressive. FWIW, I did spend about an hour after talking to her combing the internet (including that article) for anything that looked like what she showed me. I was trying to keep in short in the post, but I realize my words were reductive and not useful for communicating my thought process.

@Destructdisc
“It may also display asterism, though star opal has only been reported from Idaho.”

Me: “Thing is, star opal isn’t… real. Not in the same way that you see star sapphires.”

I was saying the same thing. The asterism in her “star opal” looked like a star sapphire, not one that you would see on a star opal. It also doesn’t say in the article that it comes from Thailand?

ETA: I didn’t get into the long bits in the post, but the stone on her gem was actually a cat’s eye that split into different rays in the sun (which happens when cat’s-eyes get hit with two different points of light.) Cat’s-eye opal definitely exists for sure, but it comes in a kinda yellowish green to orange (brown), not very light blue.