MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

I was obliged to spend a week in the seaside town of Rockport, Texas recently, attending to some business that wasn't exactly pleasant. But making the best of the situation, I took time during the last day to collect some samples hoping for some great marine diatoms. I was not disappointed. I collected a total of six samples, and at least half of them are chock full of great diatoms so I will probably be posting more during the week. Cheers!

Very nice! Makes me want to slip on over to the ocean and sneak some for myself!

Great finds, prep, and images, Kurt.

Nice catch and images!

Nothing quite like a rewarding marine sample to cheer one up. Good call taking some time out to collect them.

Looking forward to seeing what else is there.

Very nice images!

Charming, especially the last one, that accentuates the difference in chlorophyll distribution between the fibrous alga and the diatoms.

Excellent photography and very detailed.

Beautiful work, Kurt!

I see that those were cleanly stacked, with which objective though? Your Zeiss apo 63/1.4? Or did you use an achromat 45/0.65 and remove chromatic aberrations in software?

Awesome pictures!

Thank you all very much, the kind comments are especially appreciated coming from this particular group.

75RR, I have to say that you and Mr Krebs are my chief sources of inspiration, and I thank you both especially.

Fan: My apologies for being unresponsive lately, but there have been family calamities on my end, and your move took you off the radar. So to catch up, I acquired an Olympus BHS BH-2 with SPlan Apo objectives and DIC/phase contrast. The images above were taken through the SPlan Apo 10x/0.40, SPlan Apo 20/0.70, SPlan Apo 40/0.95 (dry lens) using DIC and LED illumination.

In other news, I've decided to keep the Zeiss WL for use with oil immersion lenses, which really means the 63/1.4 Planapo for all practical purposes, as I believe the optical quality of that lens-prism combo can't be beat. Another reason is very simply that I don't want to let go of my classic Black Beauty as a work of art. It's one microscope that's as nice to look at as look through.

Here are some more diatoms, as shot through the 20x and 40x lenses mentioned above:

Such fantastic images just blow me away.
CE

Lovely images!

Louise

Great stuff! That sample just keeps on giving


Big fan of Mr Krebs' work myself - I consider it the gold standard

His articles on connecting a camera to a microscope should be required reading for all microscopists.

https://www.microbehunter.com/microscop ... f=15&t=882

Stunning images full of detail and intrigue!
So-much content to learn about in these beautiful images.

You my friend have definitely got the hang of this! Interesting from top to bottom, and an impressive array of objectives that clearly perform superbly, coupled to your excellent technique.

Lovely post Kurt.

These are amazing! Beautiful diatoms and impeccable imaging. Very well done and thank you for posting.

Beautifull Kurt!

Thanks again, all! Your kind words are truly humbling...

In other news, what appeared to be filamentous algae has been revealed under the microscope to be vast numbers of diatoms inhabiting mucilaginous tubes formed by the cells of the colony, reminding millions of urban freeways during rush hour. But seriously, it was a bit staggering to be expecting something along the lines of Spirogyra strands, only to draw a focus on such scenes as these instead!

And it might be worth mentioning that, as is typically the case, the visuals in real time through the eyepieces are so much more spectacular that the best images, which simply cannot do them justice.

Hi Kurt,
great images! Diatoms are shown much too often in cleaned form an out of context. In this case the stem would be lost from the image and with it this interesting piece of information.

Bob

Agree with Bob there - the live diatoms are the ones I prefer, so much more to 'decode' and learn. This is the first time I've ever heard of diatoms in this mucilaginous-tube arrangement. How fascinating indeed!

The image quality, well, what can I add, simply excellent. More please..... A real treat!

These multi-diatom ropes are really fantastic.