MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

einman wrote:Here is a video I made of them a few years back:

WOW!!! that's a LOT of them!

The obvious check: What do you see, visually, through the eyepiece ? If it's the same effect, then the problem is with the microscope. If not ... then it's probably the software. How does the screen image behave if you pan the stage ? ... Is it 'real time' or does it lag ? MichaelG. . Edit: I've ju...

Lilly If this "snaps into focus" is detected through the viewing eyepieces, the focusing mechanism is defective. But this is unlikely IMO. If you see it only on the camera monitor, it may be related to the camera or software. Another possibility: the specimen slide is slightly lifted off the stage,...

75RR wrote:Helpful animalcule key:

http://cfb.unh.edu/cfbkey/html/begin.html

following the images I get:

http://cfb.unh.edu/cfbkey/html/Organism ... ellus.html

Ah, thank you for that! So it's a copepod of some kind. This will help.

I've been seeing this a lot lately, I'm using a 100x objective trying to focus in on something, and I turn that knob a long way, but the image does not change at all on the screen, until I've turned it far more than I should have, and then the image snaps into focus far beyond where I wanted. I'd ha...

It was twitching occasionally when I found it, now it's not moving. Is it some kind of arthropod?

It's a dileptid ( Dileptus , Pseudomonilicaryon , Rimaleptus etc.) We'd need a clear view of the "macronucleus" to identify the genus properly. :) Well that one was the only one I've seen so far, and it would not come out in the open so I could get a better view. Maybe I'll find another one that's ...

I've tried to look this organism up online and the nearest match I can find is Blepharisma. Found in pond water. It appears to have an eye-spot on the head end, like another organism I found this morning, or maybe that's it's brain, or it's mouth, I have no idea. https://s26.postimg.org/4sp07mxnd/sn...

photomicro wrote:It is a desmid, probably a Cosmarium species.

Okay, and thank you! A desmid, now I have to look that up and see what it's about.

I chased this guy all over the slide for the better part of an hour trying to get a good shot of him, but this is the best I could do: https://s26.postimg.org/sp5x4ubxl/elusive_colorful_organism_100x_cape_pond.jpg https://s26.postimg.org/f9nhskv89/elusive_colorful_organism_2_cape_pond_100x.jpg It's ...

Can anyone put a name to this? It's moving slowing about, back and forth, but not really going anywhere. I've seen two of these this morning in the new pond water sample. Maybe Chlorella?

This is a really tiny organism, and doesn't seem to do much of anything. It has interior movement, but doesn't go anywhere itself. I can see no cilia.

So in hopes of finding even more new things I set aside the water from the pond I'd gotten last week, and drove to a pond here on the cape for more water and the stuff that's in it. I got a 5 gallon bucket of it this time, and had to wade in a bit but I got my big sample. No alligators around. This ...

Nice stacks! Zerene stacker is a great program and can do some pretty impressive things! Do you remember if you used PMAx or DMap for stacking? I find for the most part PMax gives the better results, it depends on what you are stacking but from my experience I stick to PMax! Thanks for sharing! Kee...

Thanks for the link! I managed to find the original post where the other links were! Just had to look back a little further! I will agree with you that it is far more entertaining to view a live specimen under the scope than what hollywood is producing! It's always fascinating how much life can be ...

I'm really loving all of your discoveries! You have a really diverse sample site and it's great to see you finding all these and getting them identified! I think Francisco has been hitting the nail on the head for all of these really quickly! You mentioned "Josh's page"...Do you mind sharing the li...

I'm really loving all of your discoveries! You have a really diverse sample site and it's great to see you finding all these and getting them identified! I think Francisco has been hitting the nail on the head for all of these really quickly! You mentioned "Josh's page"...Do you mind sharing the li...

I've always seen these before but never moving like that! I had no idea they were a collective and moved that way!! Fascinating! I see them all the time on my scope on just about every slide of pond water. I wanted to ask about them long ago, but many other things took precedence. It would seem the...

Awesome pictures!! Those guys are always fun to watch!! I love seeing them retract back at lightening speed and slowly open up again!! I believe they are vorticella! Vorticella, okay! Thank you for that! Whatever they are they are really cool organisms. I've had great fun watching them. I never ima...

Just found this, first one for me:

Why do the site notifications not go away once you read them?

Lilly...thanks for this wonderful microscopy sharing! Based on the variety of meiofauna and protists you encountered from this water sample...well I suggest for safety sake..you not collect where alligators might ambush you ( I've heard it gets worse in your warmest seasons...yikes!). Pretty please...

75RR wrote:Do try again. I do not think that success is tied to the operating system. With a little patience (trial and error) you should get good results.

I've quite run out of patience for that approach. It got me nothing after a LOT of trying. Moving right along....

A little off topic - but it will hopefully address the image issues you have been having (re - image quality) Have you considered using your mobile phone? If you have an intelligent phone, it will have an incorporated camera that is in all probability much better than your Toupcam. http://www.micro...

Yes, that's them, and I've seen a lot of them. A micro-collective. They are each ciliated, organized, and cooperative on a very primitive level. I fear the political implications.

Peter wrote:Hi Lilly,
These are colonial diatoms.
Peter.

Ah! So they are a collective! I rather thought so! The Borg of the pond waters.

I just now came upon this in pond water, another truly groovy discovery, something I've never seen before. I got the best shots of it I could on the fly. It was moving out with it's coiled tether, uncoiling it as it moved outward, and it looks like sort of bell going out to feed, then coil it's line...

Here's another one, this one more circular and better organized.

I thought this was pretty neat looking and well ordered. I'm sure it's a specific kind of algae that does this. First time I've seen it.

And you can grab frozen single frames from videos too, using some video softwares. 4k videos from Good cameras and good microscope optics, especially, can provide pretty good single frames. Edit: Try VLC video player, which is free. Well, as I said earlier, my camera software produces very poor qua...