Microscope pictures - photomicrographs

In summary, these are pictures of recrystalized ascorbic acid, NH4 with perchloric acid, chloroplatinic acid, and polarized light.
  • #1
~christina~
Gold Member
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These are some pictures I have taken through the microscope. All of the pictures are of recrystalized ascorbic acid except for the last two. The last two are of NH4 with perchloric acid (clear crystals) and chloroplatinic acid (yellow) respectively.

[PLAIN]http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/40/img0157w.jpg [Broken] [PLAIN]http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/3545/img0176y.jpg [Broken]

[PLAIN]http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/8564/img0092w.jpg [Broken] [PLAIN]http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/1771/img0095t.jpg [Broken]

[PLAIN]http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/8066/img0085v.jpg [Broken] [PLAIN]http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/824/img0169x.jpg [Broken]

[PLAIN]http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/9308/img0140lq.jpg [Broken]

[PLAIN]http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/6563/img0158s.jpg [Broken]

[PLAIN]http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/6413/img0143e.jpg [Broken] [PLAIN]http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/3142/dsc5419.jpg [Broken]

[PLAIN]http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/4408/imgp8592.jpg [Broken] [PLAIN]http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/6676/imgp8744.jpg [Broken]
 
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  • #2
Wow, those are really cool!
 
  • #3
lisab said:
Wow, those are really cool!

Thanks lisab :smile:
 
  • #4
Nice ones, polarized light makes wonders.
 
  • #5
Borek said:
Nice ones, polarized light makes wonders.

I wholeheartedly agree, Borek. Thanks
 
  • #6
Excellent .They would look great hanging on the walls of an art gallery.
:approve:
 
  • #7
Funny thing, many years ago I was playing with computer graphic effect called plasma - there many variants, some of them very similar to some of the pictures.
 
  • #8
Dadface said:
Excellent .They would look great hanging on the walls of an art gallery.
:approve:
thanks Dadface :smile:

Borek said:
Funny thing, many years ago I was playing with computer graphic effect called plasma - there many variants, some of them very similar to some of the pictures.

Really? It sounds colourful :biggrin:

P.S. I think I've caught your condition for seeing faces in random places. I see odd faces in the first picture on the bottom (yellow one). Maybe it's just me? lol :rolleyes:
 
  • #9
~christina~ said:
I think I've caught your condition for seeing faces in random places. I see odd faces in the first picture on the bottom (yellow one). Maybe it's just me? lol :rolleyes:

You mean it is contagious?
 
  • #10
Borek said:
You mean it is contagious?

:bugeye: It must be!
 
  • #11
~christina~ said:
thanks Dadface :smile:



Really? It sounds colourful :biggrin:

P.S. I think I've caught your condition for seeing faces in random places. I see odd faces in the first picture on the bottom (yellow one). Maybe it's just me? lol :rolleyes:

I see hungry baby birds, with their mouths wide open :eek:.
 
  • #12
I said it in chat, and I'll say it again. Those are awesome christina! You have a great eye.
 
  • #13
Excellent! I love cross polarisation. I used petrological microscopes a lot a few years ago and rocks look very very pretty massively magnified. I wish we'd had a decent microscope camera and I wish I'd had chance to use the one we had more often.

Here's some of the rock I'd studied for my dissertation:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-matt/tags/dinantian/
 
  • #14
lisab said:
I see hungry baby birds, with their mouths wide open :eek:.
:bugeye: I see oddly grinning faces.
Evo said:
I said it in chat, and I'll say it again. Those are awesome christina! You have a great eye.
Thanks again, Evo! :biggrin:
matthyaouw said:
Excellent! I love cross polarisation. I used petrological microscopes a lot a few years ago and rocks look very very pretty massively magnified. I wish we'd had a decent microscope camera and I wish I'd had chance to use the one we had more often.

Here's some of the rock I'd studied for my dissertation:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-matt/tags/dinantian/
Thanks matthhyaouw!

Very interesting photos. Is that microscope, which you call a 'petrolological microscope,' a polarized light microscope? It looks exactly like the microscope I used (Olympus BH-2 PLM).

BTW I love your photos on Flickr!
 
  • #15
~christina~ said:
petrolological microscope

lolol
 
  • #16
~christina~;2765469Thanks matthhyaouw! Very interesting photos. Is that microscope said:
I forget exactly what it was but I'm pretty sure it was polarised light. It would produce similar effects to what's in your photos (though less dramatic on most minerals.)
Also thanks, glad you like them.
 
  • #17
Borek said:
lolol
Petrological :redface:

matthyaouw said:
I forget exactly what it was but I'm pretty sure it was polarised light. It would produce similar effects to what's in your photos (though less dramatic on most minerals.)
Also thanks, glad you like them.

I had to look at various minerals in the lab under polarized light. (i.e. hornblende, gypsum, calcite, etc.) I liked the ones that weren't isotropic. :rofl:
 
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  • #18
I envy you, Christina.

Very cool.
 
  • #19
Ms Music said:
I envy you, Christina.

Very cool.

Hehe, thanks Ms Music :smile:
 
  • #20
Cool ~christina~, nice pics.
 
  • #21
drizzle said:
Cool ~christina~, nice pics.

Thanks drizzle :smile:
 
  • #22
[PLAIN]http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/5294/imgp1059f.jpg [Broken]

Olefin fiber under crossed polars.

[PLAIN]http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/3830/imgp0646i.jpg [Broken]

My hair under crossed polars.
 
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  • #23
Here's a few I took today, with my new camera (Sony a850). It's sitting on a Zeiss Ultraphot III, and all except one are taken using epi-DIC. The oddball is trans-DIC. All images were cropped and re-sized (I hope...). I also have a set of Luminars, and those images may appear someday.

Ok- here's a ding in a superpolished quartz window (16x):

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/904/dsc00170ka.jpg [Broken]

This is a razor blade (8x):

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/7838/razorbladefull.jpg [Broken]

Mica (4x):

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/2848/dsc00194pd.jpg [Broken]

Pyrite (Fool's gold), 16X:

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/9639/dsc00180vx.jpg [Broken]

Tiger's eye (4x)
http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/4481/dsc00177o.jpg [Broken]

Agate (4x):
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/7128/dsc00183gu.jpg [Broken]

And finally, dried culture media (trans DIC, 16x)

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/6849/dsc00168b.jpg [Broken]

There will be more...
 
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  • #24
Stunning!
 
  • #25
Thanks! The joke is, in 2010 we finally have digital cameras that can take pictures comparable to a disposable film camera... :)
 
  • #26
Andy, could you please elaborate on that? Thanks.
 
  • #27
Andre said:
Andy, could you please elaborate on that? Thanks.

I think Andy is referring to the fact that the earlier digital cameras took poor quality pictures through a microscope.

The point and shoots were really bad because the auto focus simply wouldn't focus through a microscope.

Fairly good pictures could be taken with an inexpensive fixed focus disposable film camera.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...m=1&hl=en&sa=N&rlz=1R2GGLL_enUS386&tbs=isch:1
 
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  • #28
I meant that now we have full-frame 35mm format DSLRs.

I suppose we could argue that an APS-C format just re-scales the focal length of typical lenses (i.e. 85 mm goes to 127 mm, IIRC), but I feel that full-frame sensor let's me take full advantage of certain lenses: my luminars, for example, are actually ok all the way out to a 4x5 camera; why constrain myself to a tiny central area?

The vignetting you are seeing in some of the photomicrographs are from the fact that microscope image sizes have been able to remain small: the human eye only needs a 26mm diameter image size (IIRC), and the c-mount spec didn't force any changes. I have a lens that I am going to try and push to a 35mm image size- a 100x na 1.47; I'm not sure it will work.

So I was being a little snarky- the camera sensor is (nearly) identical to a disposable film camera; obviously putting a good lens on (like my 85/1.4 Planar) is pure glory. Anyone have a spare Noctilux? :)
 
  • #29
Ah well the Sony A-850 is indeed a first, the first full frame DSLR under $2000, but some full frame cameras have been introduced in the beginning of this century like the Canon 1D and the Kodak DCS-14n,
 
  • #30
I was looking at the 1D (also the Nikon D3x)- but as you say, those were >$8k.

You know as well as I do that it's the lens that matters (and the photographer!) at this level of performance.

IMO, the consumer market has completely obliterated the 'film' market- as a result, it's possible to get some amazing lenses for pennies: My Ultraphot was *free*, and came completely tricked out- it was used by a materials science company to evaluate steels, and it could only use polaroid film packs. Since those basically went the way of the dodo, the company had the beast stashed in a corner gathering dust. I was at the right place at the right time- it was mine for the cost of carting it away.

So now, by spending $100 for some adapters, I have a full-on macro lens set (I'll post some pics tomorrow). Not to mention a high-performing metallurgical scope.
 
  • #31
edward said:
Fairly good pictures could be taken with an inexpensive fixed focus disposable film camera.

That's an excellent site, and serves to remind us that good pictures only require a good photographer!
 
  • #32
Andy Resnick said:
Here's a few I took today, with my new camera (Sony a850). It's sitting on a Zeiss Ultraphot III, and all except one are taken using epi-DIC. The oddball is trans-DIC. All images were cropped and re-sized (I hope...). I also have a set of Luminars, and those images may appear someday.

This is a razor blade (8x):
Mica (4x):

I like the razor blade and Mica the best. Arg, why does your mica have pretty colours? I have analyzed mica under the microscope with crossed polars and have never seen it look like that. :frown:
 
  • #33
Not limited to optical microscopy, are we? Here's something a little different.

1t8wtf.png

That's an Atomic Force Microscope image I scanned a few months ago, showing a tiny gold electrode (250nm diameter, 50nm thick - patterned by e-beam lithography) deposited on a nanocrystalline oxide layer.
 
  • #34
~christina~ said:
I like the razor blade and Mica the best. Arg, why does your mica have pretty colours? I have analyzed mica under the microscope with crossed polars and have never seen it look like that. :frown:

Thanks!

Those images were taken using differential interference contrast (DIC). The colors come from something called a 'lambda plate'- those images are all 'exactly' what you see in the eyepiece.

Most people are familiar with trans-illumination DIC:

http://www.microscopyu.com/tutorials/java/phasedicmorph/

but these were all epi-illuminated. The razor blade image (and DIC in general) basically converts height information into color; I suppose the mica image is similar but don't really know- is mica birefringent?

Sir Michael Berry had a paper showing how to generate these really cool optical vortices and catastrophes with overhead transparencies... I have to find the exact paper, but you can easily make things like this:

http://www.phy.bris.ac.uk/people/berry_mv/the_papers/berry347.pdf
http://www.phy.bris.ac.uk/people/berry_mv/the_papers/berry355.pdf

Edit- here it is http://www.phy.bris.ac.uk/people/berry_mv/the_papers/Berry303.pdf
 
  • #35
The Atomic Force Microscope image looks amazing, and I'd meant to say how nice Christina's images looked, too!
 

1. What is a photomicrograph?

A photomicrograph is a photograph taken through a microscope, typically using a specialized camera attachment. It allows for the visualization and documentation of microscopic structures and organisms that are not visible to the naked eye.

2. How are microscope pictures taken?

Microscope pictures, or photomicrographs, are taken by placing a microscope slide with the specimen under the microscope's lens. The image is then magnified and focused using the microscope's knobs and adjustments. A camera is attached to the microscope and the image is captured using specialized software or a manual shutter release.

3. What types of microscopes are used to take photomicrographs?

There are several types of microscopes that can be used to take photomicrographs, including light microscopes, electron microscopes, and scanning probe microscopes. Each type has its own unique capabilities and is used for different purposes.

4. What are the benefits of using photomicrographs in research?

Photomicrographs are an important tool in scientific research as they allow for the visualization and documentation of microscopic structures and organisms. They can also provide valuable information about the size, shape, and composition of these structures, aiding in the understanding of biological processes and disease mechanisms.

5. How are photomicrographs used in education?

Photomicrographs are commonly used in education to help students visualize and understand microscopic structures and processes. They can be used in textbooks, presentations, and online resources to supplement traditional learning methods. They also allow for the comparison and analysis of different specimens, aiding in the development of critical thinking skills.

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