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More experimentation with the AO4 using the phone. These are fossil marine diatoms cleaned by Michel Haak, and mounted by Kurt.

The first is a stack of eight images, the rest are single frames.

AO4, 90x Apo Oil, afocal through 10 Compens eyepieces to a Nexus 6 phone.

One More

Those images are freaky good, just brilliant! Now that's some of the prettiest diatom imagery I've ever seen, and should be excellent for diagnostics too.

Hi Rod,

I don't think I have seen such sharpness and clarity in a diatom photo as you have presented here!.. This is fantastic work!..

BillT

Nice details! Especially like the last one. Any idea of their size?

Wow! Super sharp!
CE

KurtM wrote:Those images are freaky good, just brilliant! Now that's some of the prettiest diatom imagery I've ever seen, and should be excellent for diagnostics too.

Thanks very much Kurt. I am starting to understand what all the APO fuss is about.

billbillt wrote:Hi Rod,

I don't think I have seen such sharpness and clarity in a diatom photo as you have presented here!.. This is fantastic work!..

BillT

Thanks very much Bill - very much appreciated!

75RR wrote:Nice details! Especially like the last one. Any idea of their size?

Thanks 75.

I haven't done the measurements with the stage micrometer yet, but with my past experience with these I would say that the Centric was around 100 to 120um, and the rest probably fell in the 60 to 100um range.

Crater Eddie wrote:Wow! Super sharp!
CE

Thanks CE.

Well Rod what can one say that has not been said already except 'I'm impressed great shots' nice one son.

Thanks exmarine.

Just... Wow!

Radazz wrote:Just... Wow!

Thank you Radazz.

One more stack of 10 that I forgot to post.

The thing that happens too, is that because the lens is contributing such a low level of chromatic aberration, the shadowing is unencumbered by colour distortion and a real sense of 3 dimensions begins to take place. You can actually see curvature. great shots, Rod, and great mounting too, Kurt.

apochronaut wrote:The thing that happens too, is that because the lens is contributing such a low level of chromatic aberration, the shadowing is unencumbered by colour distortion and a real sense of 3 dimensions begins to take place. You can actually see curvature. great shots, Rod, and great mounting too, Kurt.

Thanks for that Apo- really had not thought about the Apo effect on shadows. I am very happy with the results so far.

Rod

Those images are so inspiring.

Could you elaborate on the setup you use with your phone? In particular, I am looking for a good mechanical mount. Does yours allow you to easily set the distance from the eyepiece to the phone lens?

Also, do I assume correctly that your AO4 has the optional lens above the nosepiece?

Thanks!

Thanks

I used a digiscoping mount for the phone.

Search Amazon for this: B0140U9ZPG

It works well, a bit fiddly until you get it set up. Highly adjustable. The photos at the listing will give you an idea.

I used it with both phones and small cameras with good success.

As to the optional lens you ask about, I am sorry, I am not sure what you are referring to.

Rod

Thank you very much--that camera/phone adapter looks like exactly what I need.

I am new to the AO4 and AO2 and still learning. I have three project scopes I picked up cheap on ebay. They should clean up well and I am refurbing them. They have just the achromat optics. Your AO4 is equipped with the apochromat and the compensating eyepiece, I think you said. I have heard that maybe with that combination AO put an additional lens between the objective and the eyepiece assembly. I am not sure and cannot find anything in the catalog about it. (But AO would apparently not sell you just the apochromatic objective and compensating eyepiece--maybe other unstated parts were required.

So my question was just trying to figure out what the story is with that. Since your setup works so well, I figure that is the way it should be set up. On my units, if I take the objectives and the body with the eyepiece off, there is nothing but "air" looking down the turret hole. I was just wondering whether sometimes there is a lens in there.

I was just asking in case you happened to know. Please do not take your scope apart to answer the question--let it sit just the way it is.