Haematococcus pluvialis - more pictures added

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Ecki
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Location: Cape Town, South Africa
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Haematococcus pluvialis - more pictures added

Post by Ecki »

Yesterday I managed to buy two new "used" lenses. The first one is a 16x Plan Neofluar Imm Phase 2 with a NA of 0.50. The other one is a 63x Plan Apochromat Phase 3 with a NA of 1.40. I need to practice with the 63x as I am a rookie when it comes to oil immersion. However, here are the first shots, no further image processing.

Image
16x Plan Neofluar Imm, Oil Immersion, Nikon D5000.

Image
63x Plan Apochromat, Oil Immersion, Nikon D5000.

Best regards
Eckhard
Last edited by Ecki on Sun Oct 03, 2010 9:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

Mitch640
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Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 1:43 pm

Post by Mitch640 »

Very interesting images Eckhard. I have yet to try oil immersion yet. Looking forward to it.

Franz Neidl
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Location: Italy

Post by Franz Neidl »

Hello Eckhard,

I like very much the colours of the second picture (as in modern art). But if this is a phasecontrast picture I have the question: Are the condenser anular ring and the anular ring of the Obective 64x exactly centered? Did you controll if they are centered?

Have a nice Sunday!
Franz

Ecki
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Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 2:04 am
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
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Post by Ecki »

Franz,

I had the same association - modern art - when I looked at this picture. It is brightfield and not phase contrast, sorry for any confusion.

Haematococcus pluvialis can be found in puddles, bird baths, etc. This Algae loves hard water and can live even in brackish water. When environmental conditions become bad, Haematococcus pluvialis recycles its two flagellums, produces astaxanthin and morphs into an akinete. The astaxanthin is probably there to protect the akinete from the sunlight.

When environmental conditions improve, the akinete "wakes up" and morphs into the flagellated form.

Akinetes:

Image
10x Planapo, Darkfield

Image
100x PlanNeo, DIC

Flagellated form:

Image
63x Planapo, Phase Contrast

Image
63x Planapo, Phase Contrast

Image
100x PlanNeo, DIC

Best regards
Ecki

Cactusdave
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Location: Bromley, Kent, UK

Post by Cactusdave »

You are very lucky to have acquired the 63x Plan Apochromat NA 1.40. It is a lens I used a lot when working professionaly with confocal immunofluorescence. I think it is one of the finest finite lenses Zeiss ever made. Unfortunately. like a lot of older Zeiss lenses they are prone to delamination, especially if they have been blasted with lots of intense UV from high intensity arc lamps for fluorescence applications. I'd love to own a nice one myself sometime.
Leitz Ortholux 1, Zeiss standard, Nikon Diaphot inverted, Canon photographic gear

Ecki
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Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 2:04 am
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
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Post by Ecki »

As you can see in the next picture something is eating my Haematococcus cysts.

Image
63x PlanApochromat Phase Contrast

It took me a while to catch the parasite "in flagranti", but here you go:

Image
63x PlanApochromat DIC

It is a fungus. The cyst in the middle of the right side has been infected and is eaten alive.

@Dave,

these are infinity corrected optics. I have two 63 Planapos, the Phase version and the DIC version. Both have been bought used and show no sign of delamination.

Regards
Eckhard

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