Menthol crystals

[Chris Dee]

1st pic unmodified polarised illumination. Menthol dissolved in ethanol, a drop placed on slide and coverslip added. Crystals have formed around the edges of the coverslip and are now beginning to extend under the coverslip after 24hrs. This is a shot of that progression, I hope more will form in the coming days.

IMG_5630.jpg (199.36 KiB) Viewed 1506 times

The 2 pics below are from the same slide onto which the methanol was melted and allowed to crystallise uncovered. The first is a darkfield image of an amorphous area of crystals. 20 shot image stack.

2020-05-23 15-35-45 (C).jpg (208.1 KiB) Viewed 1506 times

Oblique polarised illumination shot of a seed area. 15 shot image stack.

2020-05-23 14-33-07 (C).jpg (336.35 KiB) Viewed 1506 times

Never ceases to amaze, the sheer variety of formations witnessed when experimenting with crystals.

Objective: 16x Zeiss Neofluar Ph2
Microscope: Vickers M17
3.3x NFK photo eyepiece

[Hobbyst46]

Nice and pleasant photos !

[75RR]

Very nice. Are you able to see it progressing by eye or is it too slow for that?

[Chris Dee]

Menthol is a bit slower to form crystals than others I've tried 75RR. The uncovered samples are the quickest and can be observed growing but quite slowly. The covered samples are very slow to crystallise, this is day 2 and have only progressed marginally since the top image was taken.