Diatom - Tabellaria Flocculosa (images added!)

[hkv]

Access to spring water samples opens up new opportunities for slide surfing. I collected three small bottles of water last week at the Åland Islands in the Baltic sea. Seems to be full of interesting stuff. Here is the first find, which I believe is a diatom Tabellaria Flocculosa. Both captured using UplanSAPO 60X water immersion and DIC. I also found a lot of these funny small "knots" which you can see in the second image in the lower right corner.

[vasselle]

Bonjour.
Superbes photos.
Merci pour le partage.
Cordialement seb

[mrsonchus]

Wow hk' - what superb images these are my friend, truly stunning!

[Pat Thielen]

Incredible images! Thanks for sharing -- DIC does impress to be sure.

[hkv]

Thanks all!

A new one with same objective, but with oiled condenser.

[mrsonchus]

FAN-TASTIC image - absolutely flawless! You my friend, are a MASTER of this craft!

Congratulations, thanks for a state-of-the-art image, I may not have DIC, but boy I enjoy your images. If I ever do venture into that murky realm I will certainly have a good yard-stick gallery (i.e your images) with which to compare!

Thanks for the extra treat.

John B

[75RR]

Beautiful images - very well done!

When you say water immersion do you mean you have added a drop of water to the cover slip? (as opposed to dipping)
If that is so - have you tried (assuming that is possible and it will remain in place) a drop of water on the condenser?
Just wondering what effect consistency in the medium would have.

[mrsonchus]

Beautiful images - very well done!

When you say water immersion do you mean you have added a drop of water to the cover slip? (as opposed to dipping)
If that is so - have you tried (assuming that is possible and it will remain in place) a drop of water on the condenser?
Just wondering what effect consistency in the medium would have.

I've wondered a similar thing when using my water objective 75'. I too wonder if this may make a difference, I'll give it a try, although I've not really the sharpness of edge to notice the difference I think.

[hkv]

Yes, it is a drop of water on top of the cover glass. The objective is designed to be used with a cover glass. It has an adjustment ring for various thickness of glass+media. I have tried to use water on the oil condenser, but the image resolution gets really poor and looks hazy. I need to read up on the proper use of this objective for homogenous immersion. Obviously water does not work for the oil condenser. I applied oil yesterday and it improved as expected. However, comparing the first two with the third image the resolution is slightly better, but not a dramatic improvement. It is not worth the extra work I think. There must be a way to use water on both places as the objective has N.A 1.20, but lack of condenser immersion will limit N.A to around 1. A waste of course, but still if I need oil to reach 1.2 on the condenser, I can just as well go full oil and reach 1.35 with the 60X oil objective. I want 1.20 with water, water. Water has a refractive index of 1.33 so, in theory, it should be able to max out the objectives N.A of 1.2.

[75RR]

Beautiful images - very well done!

When you say water immersion do you mean you have added a drop of water to the cover slip? (as opposed to dipping)
If that is so - have you tried (assuming that is possible and it will remain in place) a drop of water on the condenser?
Just wondering what effect consistency in the medium would have.

I've wondered a similar thing when using my water objective 75'. I too wonder if this may make a difference, I'll give it a try, although I've not really the sharpness of edge to notice the difference I think.

Thinking about it again - I do not think it will affect the image - assuming it stays in place and provides an adequate cone of light - it should however simplify cleanup.

Joint posting! Thanks for your thoughts hkv - not a practical proposition then, oh well ...

[hkv]

Additional comment. Here at the forum (1024 pixels wide images) it is hard to see any difference in resolution of the first two and the third image. If you click on my flickr link below, you will find the images at 4x the resolution and the difference is more visible.

[zzffnn]

Hakan,

Water immersing oil condenser can actually let water leak into it over time. It may happen after a dozen times or so.

That happened to my cheap LOMO Abbe oil condenser. Fortunately, its top lens can be easily screwed off and its inside can be cleaned.

Actually, if you get used to it, cleaning oil off condenser is not that inconvenient. I use alcohol wipes.

[75RR]

Additional comment. Here at the forum (1024 pixels wide images) it is hard to see any difference in resolution of the first two and the third image. If you click on my flickr link below, you will find the images at 4x the resolution and the difference is more visible.

See what you mean. Perhaps uploading a crop of the images would make the difference more apparent in the forum, though it will of course mess with the composition.

[hkv]

Air gap:



Oil gap:

[75RR]

Thanks - useful having them side by side.
By the way, if you rotate the second one 180˚ it turns from a positive bias to a negative one (like the top image)

[hkv]

Thanks - useful having them side by side.
By the way, if you rotate the second one 180˚ it turns from a positive bias to a negative one (like the top image)

Rotated, but they are too big to fit side by side. Then the idea with the crop goes away. Turn your screen

Note that it is not the same subject in both images. These were taken on two consecutive days.

[75RR]

Rotated, but they are too big to fit side by side.

True, still above and below is better than nothing.

Turn your screen 8-)

Used to have two monitors side by side - only one working now :(

[gekko]

Excellent images.

[hkv]

Thanks Gekko. Let me bore you with a final image in this thread. (at least for now)

60X Water Immersion, stack of 10. Oil condenser.

[billben74]

Wow late to the party. Those are a stunning set of images.