Rik, your most recent finding is interesting. You may have issues because carbide blades are very picky about speed. Being incredibly hard but very brittle, cutters made from carbide usually have cutting edges with more obtuse angles and/or radii/chamfers. As a result carbide cutters have to be run ...

I would like to buy a condenser top for the Leitz 170mm era condenser system. I am looking for one of at least 1.25 NA but would prefer the 1.4 NA, and I would consider the 1.33 NA Pol top. I will buy outright or I have some interesting Leitz parts of my own and would consider trades. Thanks, Brendan

I suppose it might be helpful to explain my technique in more detail. Since I don't apply it all the way to the edge I may clean the edges of the lens with a lens wipe. But unless the lens is really dirty on the edges I usually avoid cleaning it at all before applying the FC (First Contact). To appl...

I use the clear version of First Contact. It works really well, but as noted there are some things to pay attention to. First, I don't let it come into contact with any plastic. It doesn't affect certain plastics but others get soft. Second, on some lenses I don't paint it all the way to the edge. W...

Glad to help.

It seems we have similar interests. I am setting up to do marine aquaculture for aquariums, though I don't have any tanks setup at the moment. Your tank is beautiful. I love that Seriatopora caliendrum with the green tipped polyps.

I think Charles is on the right track. This is where fluorescence could help in confirming: http://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/handle/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-opus-49634/Ernst_2006281_289_Harmful_Algae.pdf?sequence=1 Cyanobacterial species use the biliproteins phycocyanin and allophycocyanin to harv...

The colored dots may be birefringent droplets of lipids, or something like that. To view autofluorescence in algae I use a broad spectrum deep blue excitation filter + an oiled darkfield condenser + a broad spectrum (yellow and longer wavelengths) barrier filter. It is adequate for strong autofluore...

A fungal hypha perhaps? Was it unbranched? When I see something I can't identify like this I tend to observe it in several lighting methods. I'd try phase, as well as various barrier filters in darkfield to see if it has any autofluorescence, polarization with various compensators, etc. Chlorophyll ...

Thanks phytoplankton! All required components and Zeiss objectives designed for the three different versions of Zeiss DIC for 160 tube length are summarized here if you haven't seen it. http://www.the-ultraphot-shop.org.uk/faq.htm I have my Zeiss Universal stand equipped with the first version of Z...

Nice photo of an interesting subject.

It in encouraging to see your DIC result with the PL APO 63/1.4. I am trying to piece together DIC for this lens as well. What objectives were the Zeiss prisms designed for?

Great pictures!

It is interesting how the pellicle has pieces missing. I wonder if they would eventually be replaced.

I decided to try taking some pictures with my microscope. I don't have a proper setup yet so I just put a tripod with a Nikon D60 over a Vario-Orthomat eyepiece on my Orthoplan. I had a large 3 inch by 2 inch slide with a large 36 x 60 mm cover glass sealed with vaseline that I had let sit for a whi...

Interesting. Is the specimen showing fluorescence or is this it's normal color?

I believe they were trying to say it's not a living organism. To my eyes it screams cross polarized light, the concentric rings suggest it is thicker in the center, and the "ejecta" suggests a drop that impacted a surface or maybe is in an immiscible fluid.

Looks like a small droplet of something, perhaps a thin film forming substance like soap, in polarized light.