Category: Observations and pictures

Here I present some photomicrographic images that I made. All pictures are copyrighted and may not be used.

Testing the iPad camera

The two images show the fresh water polyp Hydra sp taken with the iPad held in front of the eyepiece (40x and 400x total magnification). The images were uploaded directly and not edited (except resize).

Wing of a Fly

fly wing

The wing of flies and bees (of hymenoptera in general) are thin and membranous. Place the dry wing into Euparal mounting medium and place a further drop on top of the wing, before adding the cover glass. Wet mounts should Read More …

Bird Feathers

Chicken feather

Bird feathers are relatively easy specimens to observe.

Dandelion pollen in dark-field

The pollen grains from a dandelion (Taraxacum sp.) were collected and air-mounted (no liquid mounting medium used). Eleven separate images were stacked together to increase the depth of field and to produce the final image. The color contrast was then Read More …

Blood cells of a Frog and of a Human

blood frog 1

The red blood cells of amphibians contain contain a nucleus, which is visible as a dark purple dot in the center of each cell. In contrast, the red blood cells of mammals do not possess a nucleus.

Starch grains of a Potato

Potato starch grains in dark field.

The pink oval structures are potato starch grains. One of the easiest and fastest way to observe starch grains is to scratch some sample off the surface of a potato with a sharp object and then adding some diluted iodine Read More …