MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

zzffnn is quite right. The resolution of the best light microscopes are approx. 400-200 nm. A polarizing microscope will not do much good for opaque crystals. This is my attempt at using a polarizing microscope on crushed, ground, smashed and hammered play sand. 40x obj., crossed polars, plus a 1000...

A paraphrase of the play 2P4H A curiosity comparison between two microscopes with different cameras and the same specimen. The microscopes are a Labomed LB-592 and an upgraded vintage Bausch & Lomb. The cameras are from the same manufacturer, the objectives (PLAN 4x, not interchangeable) are from Ch...

Rodney:
How do you keep your microscope dry while photographing under water?
Beautiful.

Presented here are several home made mineral thin sections. Some of them never seen before. Some with wonderous colours, others as drab as a battleship, some even have animals in them. (long dead as in millions of years) Make some popcorn, sit back and enjoy the show. The source. ThinSectionSource.j...

This is from an earlier explanation of how I cut thin sections

I make the thin sections in my basement.
This is how I make thin sections. Sort of.

I purchased a bunch of small fossils as material for thin sections. The Turritella is the first in a series. The initial thin sections were a tad thick and although the fossils could be seen, the photos were a bit dull. The linked photos are the result of more grinding and polishing. I was quite sur...

What is the powerline frequency in your area?
If you have a halogen light source and in the USA, the camera should be set to 60Hz.
If your light source is LED, the microscope power supply may be suspect.

My experience has been the scan lines go away with higher brightness levels.

Another two cents worth. The two set screws on your condenser are set at the factory. They are really stop screws, not centering screws. The big screw that holds the condenser in place presses the condenser against the stop screws. Adjusting the stop screws while the condenser is being held firmly b...

I use my old Gossen LunaSix 3 light meter with a microscope attachment to measure the light output.
The tables on the reverse are easily converted to lumens.

Very nice.
Have you looked through the slide with polarized light?
I believe that was the original intention of the slide.

An interesting paper on a device that reads like a microscopists dream. Lacking was a description of the micro controller and its interface to the LCD panel and the user. I had previously read about the LED device as a condenser aperture replacement. The LED device is available, but at a considerabl...

Yes there are microscopes that view through both the photo tube and eyepiece at the same time.

My Labomed LB-592 when using the eyepiece can also view through the photo tube.
This feature allows the use of a teaching head to be mounted in the photo tube.

Check out amazon.com. They list filament bulbs for 110v and are priced equal or better than eBay.
Amazon LED filament bulbs

You play on it, drive on it, but have you ever looked at it. You might be surprised what is in a piece of asphalt. This presentation of a thin section of asphalt, 80 microns, shows asphalt is more than just a black stretch of road. IMG_0605.jpg [/url] Details: The specimen is thin enough to see the ...

You do not need the specimen on the stage to set the white balance.
Just place a blank slide and set the white balance.
The camera will save the setting, it will not need changing until you adjust the brightness or change lamps.

This is the replay from Fossildude19 "It is actually multiple fossils. :) The item on the right appears to be a Bryozoan. Maybe a Coral. The other item appears to be a cross section through a valve of a brachiopod, or pelecypod. The dark roundish object middle left may be an internal mold of a brach...

The size of the "worm" is approx .65 mm wide and 3mm long.

billbillt:

Thanks for the link.
I have registered and posted in the ID thread.

Fossil forum?

I do not have any more information other than it is a thin section I made of a black coloured stone found along a community trail.

A surprising shape in a thin section of a black coloured stone I picked up during a walk. The link is to a zoom and pan of the full specimen of the black stone. 0-0-0.jpg [/url] There are a few other interesting area in the specimen. This is a close up of what I think is a fossil. BlackRock3_17_5MLP...

I am certainly no expert on rocks and bones, but these photos may give you a clue.
Microscope photos of bone

This article show how to prepare a bone section.

Rodney: A slice of rock should be at least 100 microns thin in order to transmit light. Add the thickness of the mount and the minimum thickness for transparency is approx. 125 microns. The 100 microns is hard to achieve without first polishing one side and then mounting it. Once mounted you can gri...

If you can crush rocks fine enough to pass through a 100 mesh screen, then you can cement the crushed rock to a glass slide. The process is called comminution.
The slide can be viewed with a polarizing microscope.
McCrone mineral set

The rock thin sections, including the epoxy mountant, are 80-90 microns thick. I made a thin section of sulphur Sulphur-a_5MLX_2x_03.jpg as an experiment. The slice started out about 20mm thick and ended up approx. 110mm on the slide. With soft material I finish them off by hand on 1200-1500 grit we...

It's July the 4th and these rock thin sections will not light up the sky with fireworks.
They did provide some exciting moments watching spinning disks and flying rocks.
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Taconite is a low grade iron ore and was once considered a waste rock and not used. Its primary use was as an aggregate in road construction. Today, Taconite is the savior of the iron ore mining industry in Minnesota. It is now mined and refined into pellets and shipped to smelters along the Great L...

Yes. Not totally, just some of the pastel and near colours.
That is why I calibrate my monitors, computers and printers using hardware colour calibrating tools.

I am in the process of making seven thin sections. When they are finished, I hope to identify some of the minerals with this wonderful book " Rocks and Minerals in thin section" . The accuracy of the mineral identification will depend on the acuteness of my wife's colour perception. You certainly do...