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My Latest Microscope

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 12:54 pm
by Roldorf
Just acquired a new stereo microscope at a bargain price.
Optika SFX 91 from a mineral borse (show) in Clausthal-Zellerfeld where we were attending a week long course on minerals (our third in the last two years).
Half price made it an unmissable buy.
Optika-SFX-91.jpg
Optika-SFX-91.jpg (43.76 KiB) Viewed 5297 times

The very first image from the new scope (not very exciting and only 10x)

SFX 91 Crop.jpg
SFX 91 Crop.jpg (191.15 KiB) Viewed 5297 times

I will post more later.

Re: My Latest Microscope

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:20 pm
by Scarodactyl
Neat! Stereos are super fun. Any chance it was from Mikon?

Re: My Latest Microscope

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 4:44 pm
by Dave S
Very nice Alan, and a bargain too!! :)

Re: My Latest Microscope

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 5:07 pm
by MicroBob
Hi Alan,
congratulations, a stero microscope is nearly indispensable in my view. This is a nice model with built in light, a handle, and a useful magnification range. I use my stereo microscopes in varying places and a compact package is worth a lot.

Bob

Re: My Latest Microscope

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 6:01 pm
by Roldorf
Another pic to whet your appetite.

image1 .jpg
image1 .jpg (126.03 KiB) Viewed 5262 times

Will let you know what it is when I find out.

Re: My Latest Microscope

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 9:51 pm
by Scarodactyl
That's irridescent labradorite, likely from Madagascar or Canada. The color is produced by the crystallographic incompatibility of the two plagioclase feldspar endmembers, albite (sodium feldspar) and anorthtite (calcium feldspar). They're perfectly happy to intermix at high temperatures, but at lower temperatures they would prefer to be separate. If they cool at the right rate they separate into thin layers of alternating composition which can diffract light.

Re: My Latest Microscope

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 5:59 am
by Roldorf
Thanks Scarodactyl for the identification and the very comprehensive explanation of how the various layers form.

It came in a packet of rock samples I bought at the mineral borse.

I have been trying to use https://www.mineralienatlas.de to search for the samples but as yet have not had much luck. If you know of a better on-line identification website please let me know.

I will also have to get myself a Mohs test kit. Using files, copper pennies, and nails is not a very good way of testing.

Edit: I bought the scope from a company called Winlab which is a small firm in Claustal-Zellerfeld.

Re: My Latest Microscope

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 8:11 pm
by Roldorf
Another from the packet of rock samples:

Tigers Eye associated with Hematite.

Image

Re: My Latest Microscope

Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2020 12:23 pm
by Roldorf
Just been trolling through our fossil collection of some of the smaller items (kept in a jar) and trying to identify various items. Success on one of them. I have wondered for a long time if this was a tooth of some kind of fish.
Images taken from Optica SFX90 with mobile phone camera and trimmed with Photoshop CS4 no other enhancements.
Click on any image to go to the full size (zoomable) view.

Image

Top? 10x actual length 10.5 mm

Bottom? 10x

Image

Now I know. Its a mandible (tooth, jaw?) Palaeoteuthis larus, of a Nautilus (lower cretaceous 100 - 145 million years). Found in South East France, apparently quite rare.

Re: My Latest Microscope

Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2020 2:08 pm
by Roldorf
Still looking through our unidentified fossils. Last week we acquired a collection of fossils from our neighbor. He and his wife collected quite a number of fossils from the Normandy coast over a number of years. While searching through https://www.paleontica.org/ for the previous item I came across an entry for coprolites on the shop associated with the website and lo and behold I found an entry for coprolites.

This is an image of the one we got from our neighbor. (my scope is in the background to make it relevant to the forum, because this is not really a microbe :D and has nothing to do with microscopes), but interesting non-the-less.
If you don't know what a coprolite is, you can look it up one the internet because the word for it might not be allowed on this website. However, if I trust my sources it is the cop... of a dinosaur.
Again you can click on the image to make it bigger (If you dare :lol: )

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