Animal Hair

[hyla]

Hello Everyone!
So my dad was out in the woods yesterday, and he found some very long hairs stuck to a tree right near some large animal tracks. It must be either a Bear or a Moose because those are the only animals large enough to make the tracks. Unfortunately the snow was deep, so the actual print of the tracks were kind of obscured. After looking at one of the hairs under my microscope I have concluded that it must be a moose hair because it matches the image of moose hairs I found online much better than those of bear hair, but I figured I would post it to see what you guys think!
p.s (I am still working on my photography skills, so any photography advise is welcome!)

This is the root end of the hair, magnified 10x


This is a picture of the hair magnified 20x


This is another picture of the hair where I played with the color adjustment on my camera to try and see some of the details better.

[gekko]

Nice images and interesting object-- I learned something new. I think you are right that it may be a moose hair. Another possibility is elk hair ( https://museumbulletin.wordpress.com/20 ... lletin-45/ -- scroll down about 1/4th of the way). Moose and elk hair seem to be rather similar.
Photography: what camera are you using and how did you couple it to the microscope? Are you using the Optiphot with the binocular head? What objectives did you use? When you look through the eyepiece(s), do you see the yellow outline visible in the 2nd picture?

[mrsonchus]

Wow - Moose or Bear! Here in the UK I may have to choose between Squirrel and Cat! Very interesting post and really good images. Hard to tell from the website quoted but looks like you're in the right area....

Thanks for the interesting post.

[JimT]

Hyla, your photography skills look OK to me. What camera and what do you use for post processing? If Photoshop or PS Elements there are ways to get rid of the yellow fringe (or any other color aberration that shouldn't be there). Lots of tutorials on the Web.
Don't know what the hair might be. Only way I could tell is if the root was still in the animal

[gekko]

JimT is right that you can get rid of of color fringes in post-processing. But my question, weather the yellow "fringe" was visible through the eyepiece or only in the camera image, was to try to figure out where the problem lay, if there was indeed a problem. Chromatic aberration is expected, but I don't expect such a wide obvious yellow fringe. Unless the yellow "fringe" was no more than representing a shadow (or a diffraction effect) but appears yellow because of the white balance setting you used for the camera (i.e. your aim was not to use the white balance of the camera to correct for the color temperature of the illumination, and you did imply that in your post). In that case there would be no problem. What makes me think that this might be the reason is that the third image with cyan background does not show such a "fringe". Other than the yellow "fringe" in the second image, the images are pretty good.
By the way, it would be useful, in addition to any images with altered white balance, to show a picture with the correct white balance that gives the viewer an idea of the actual color of what you are showing-- at least that is my opinion for what it is worth.

[hyla]

The camera that I am using is an Amscope USB microscope camera (5MP), and it is mounted to the microscope by one of the eyepieces (I don't have a trinocular head). The objective that I am using are not necessarily meant for biological material, but I thought they would be o.k. because there was no coverslip needed for this specimen. I do not see the outline visible when I look into the microscope, which is why I tried to use the computer software that came with the camera to adjust the color (the computer software is one from Amscope that comes with the camera). I did mess with the white balance in both photos, but the pictures I have where I did not mess with the white balance that yellow fringe is still visible. I adjusted the white balance to try and get the yellow fringe to look less intense, and to make some of the details of the picture more noticeable. I didn't think to post an unaltered photo because I didn't like how they looked! Now that you suggest it I guess it would have made more sense if I had posted an unaltered photo.

[mrsonchus]

Hi, It looks to me to be a matter of subject lighting - I wouldn't lose too much sleep over the fringe, this is a rather difficult subject for a microscope (& camera) to make an optimum job of imaging. I often make 'rough & ready' observations of a subject without any mounting medium or cover-slip etc and get similar results.
Perhaps there are a couple of things you may try to improve the imaging - de-grease the hair with a couple of alcohol (or similar) washes and cover with a high refractive index liquid - try almost any oil - immersion-oil for example, then put on a cs. This will very likely drastically improve your image and reduce what looks like diffraction.
Alternatively ensure a black background with a piece of black card or similar under the subject, then apply lighting from above (preferably from at least 2 directions) - this approach may help but is likely to improve if you take say 4 images at progressive 'levels' of focus and stack them...
With only air between subject and objective you may be limited to the x10 or lower objectives for optimal results?
It's probably a matter of giving your 'scope and camera the best conditions under which they are able to perform - this has been true for me on countless subjects placed straight onto the slide for a quick look.
Simple de-greasing with alcohol and allowing to dry will probably help a lot - it certainly does when dealing with some pollens that have a lot of oils in them when collected - this is a case where I will get similar results to you without a little treatment..
Maybe worth a try!
p.s. put 2 drops of nail polish over the hair after washing and a cover-slip - hey-presto a virtually permanent mount!

[hyla]

Thanks John. B!! Those are great and simple suggestions! I will have to try using the alcohol and changing the color of the background. I am particularly interested in trying the alcohol suggestion to remove some oils because I actually did try using lighting from above. My microscope (Nikon Optiphot) has a top light as well, but when I turned it on the hair appeared white in many places as if it were reflecting the light back. It seems like this white reflection may have been caused by oils that are on the hair.

Thanks all for the suggestions! I have so much more to experiment with now!

[mrsonchus]

Thanks all for the suggestions! I have so much more to experiment with now!

This is where the real fun starts!