Quick test of new micrometer slide

[McConkey]

My calibration slide arrived in the mail last week but my return to work after 2 weeks vacation had me a little distracted!

AO 20, Phase Contrast, 40x Dark Phase obj. 3x image stack for each image.

This was just a quick test to see if i had done the micrometer slide right and could actually measure some specimens. Identification is always welcome as you'll never get an I.D from me!

EDIT: Is there a forum preference to where the measure goes in the image? Colour? Size? Orientation? If there is a forum standard...or even scientific community standard for showing measurement on images, please don't hesitate to let me know!

[billbillt]

My calibration slide arrived in the mail last week but my return to work after 2 weeks vacation had me a little distracted!

EDIT: Is there a forum preference to where the measure goes in the image? Colour? Size? Orientation? If there is a forum standard...or even scientific community standard for showing measurement on images, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Hi Mc,
As far as I know there is no set standard here on this forum.. I do know some software actually measures the image for you some how and prints it on the image.. That is about the limit of my knowledge about this..

[gekko]

As BillT said, there is no standard for forum images. A purely personal taste: I, for whatever reason, do not like scale bars in red, although it looks like those that are generated automatically by software are invariably in red. Your scale bars are fine.

[kinase]

The confocal I use can put the scale bar an any other measurement you desire on the image. Usually in papers, it's just a bar that is out of the way of the subject in a corner, usually the inverse color of the background. i.e. brightfield usually has black and fluorescence with black background white or yellow. They don't usually have the little vertical bars at the end although some do. A lot of times it doesn't have a 5um or any unit above it and it's mentioned in the figure caption but I don't like that. I prefer that the bar says how long it is above it that way if I just want to look at the picture, the scale isn't hidden in the caption. Some people don't include scale bars sometimes but I guess everyone reading a paper has a good idea of how big human cells in culture are. Plus figure's in papers are sometimes so small, there's not room for one and they might just say "the axon is 5um across an 40um long" in the caption.

[75RR]

Works well. It is clear and yet pretty much unobtrusive. If I may make a suggestion - try it on the bottom left, see what you think.

[McConkey]

Appreciate the feedback!

Good to know I'm not messing up any scientific standards!

[exmarine]

Have had a good look through my many books for the identification of the 'Black Blob' and come up with a Protozoa, Nuclearia moebiusias it has cilia all around the body, and has longer flagellates. (I think there are some in the picture).

The circle of friends could be the rod shaped bodies of trichocysts. Whatever they are.

These are NOT positive I.D.'s. but somewhere to start.

[McConkey]

exmarine - Apprwciate the I.D efforts!! What books are you using for I.D? I have some online resources but books are always nice to flip through!

[exmarine]

Hi Mc.
A couple of books I have for reference are;

1. The Freshwater Algae Flora of the British Isles.

2.Freshwater Algae.

3. Free-living Freshwater Protozoa.

4. Freshwater microscopy

5. Animals in freshwater microscopy.

I find that a lot of algae from Europe and the U S A are very much the same maybe with a different name. But at least its somewhere to start the finding of species. Hope that helps. Good luck trying to identify your findings.

[McConkey]

Thanks exmarine! I'll see if I can grab a copy of those!

EDIT...several hours and a few Amazon searches later...haha maybe I need a save a weeeeee bit a cash first before grabbing those.