General microscopy thread.

[specious_reasons]

These are tiny screws from a laptop keyboard, they're about 1mm tall and 1 mm wide. Same process:

laptop_screws_2-Edit.jpg

[specious_reasons]

I got frustrated at work, so I did some experimenting on a photo I had done:

This is a stacked image of a chunk of Selenite under a microscope. Selenite is a translucent crystal of the mineral gypsum.



I thought this might look good in black and white, and with some tweaking, I feel I'm right:

[-FX-]

Have you ever looked at your own white blood cells?

[specious_reasons]

I just bought a used microtome knife off eBay. There's been a few things I wanted to slice thinly, but the hand microtome I purchased came with a straight razor, which didn't work for me. I tried with regular knives in the past, but they don't work any better than the straight razor.

A microtome knife is basically a big wedge of steel with a handle. The tapered end is sharpened, similar to a knife, but with a low angle on bevel. The general premise is that the knife will lay flat on the microtome and cut parallel to the surface. The knife is also large and heavier than a pocket knife or a straight razor - it's about 16 cm/6.3 in, so the mass will help push it through the material.

So I purchased the knife, but I realized I don't know where my microtome is...

[specious_reasons]

Ordered a new microtome, which means I will find the old one in a matter of days.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by specious_reasons

Ordered a new microtome, which means I will find the old one in a matter of days.

This is the way.

[JoeP]

Microtome:

[BrotherMan]

[specious_reasons]

So I had an idea for a series of photos based on the Selenite photo above. I did 5 more and applied the same process...

Here's the black and white processed versions, I think 4/5 works.

stack1_photocopy_and_stack.jpg

stack2_photocopy_and_stack.jpg

stack3_photocopy_and_stack.jpg

stack4_photocopy_and_stack.jpg

This doesn't work for 2 reasons. First the images needed alignment, there's a crack in the "plateau" on the upper left, and you can clearly see two lines that parallel it. Second, the surface of the crystal here was rough, and it makes the picture too busy for what I want.

stack5_photocopy_and_stack.jpg

[JoeP]

I like #3 the best. Although #2 has the appeal of looking like a surrealist pair of glasses.

[specious_reasons]

I fumbled these lichen (maybe Cladonia cariosa, but probably a Cladonia species) and got a bunch of detritus on the cover glass, ruining a whole bunch of photos, but I may be able to fix some of it. In the meantime, these pictures didn't suck.

This is lichen growing out from my fence. It's a southern facing fence, but seems to get just the right amount of sunshine for moss and lichen to thrive. These green stalks were coming out in the last few days, so I collected a couple. The red spots are likely to be some sort of fruiting body, whatever the proper term is for a lichen. The little thing that looks vaguely like a garlic cloves surprised me. I have no idea what they are, but I suspect insect eggs.

This is approximately 40X, so a roughly 2mm segment of the stalk.
DSC03613.jpg

This is approximately 100X
DSC03614.jpg

This is approximately 100X
DSC03615.jpg

[JoeP]

Lichens are fun. You should do more.

[specious_reasons]

One of the stalks of the same lichen, approximately 40X, cropped. The stalk segment shown is 1-1.5mm long.

This was a new attempt a 15 image stack with additional post-processing. Basically, I masked the background and made it darker and increased the contrast a bit.

The latest combination of Lightroom and latest Windows 11 seems to have gotten so much slower. I do dust deletion on one photo then copy & paste it to the others, and I basically had to leave it bake overnight. I used to be able to do this in an hour or two.

2025-03-16-12.31.59 ZS PMax-2.jpg

[specious_reasons]

OK, yeah, this one was probably worth the time and effort:

2025-03-17-16.29.56 ZS DMap.jpg

This is a 27 image stack, approximately 100X.

Even though I like it, there's probably a bit more I could do to refine it... Maybe if I get bored one day.

[specious_reasons]

Here's the first stack, rendered with my script, with the noisy background removed.

Photocopy_and_stack1_1.jpg