RobertoM, Yes, those are the two main types of microscopes. Let me add some more detail... One type is low magnification (7-50X), has an upright image (not inverted), gives separate left eye / right eye views so you can see depth, and has long working distance between lens and subject. These are usu...

Good stuff -- thanks for the link, Dave!

--Rik

For mechanical positioning, here are some setups that I have used: Worm with spider (focus ring on a macro lens, camera on regular tripod) Spiny spider (focus ring on a macro lens, camera on mini tripod strapped to post) Frost spikes (knob on a bellows rack) Mayfly eyes , setup shown here (big heavy...

My, what big mandibles you have, grandmother....Very interesting story about how curiosity lead to good photography, Rik. On a technical note, I think the glare on the mandible may partially be eliminated by a polarizier. Irwin Thanks, Irwin. As it happens, I worked very hard to get that glare just...

Lovely! Enjoy your trip!

--Rik

============== I had no idea! :shock: =============== http://www.janrik.net/MiscSubj/2007/CricketMandibles20071220/CricketMandibles20071220.jpg I mean, crickets normally look like such cute friendly little guys. :) Soft little palps, soft little faces, soft little...well...soft. Cuddly, almost. Jimi...

I have not looked at these scales at any higher magnification. You can get a lot of info about other scales by searching Google images for word combos like SEM butterfly scales . One page that pops right up is http://www.nanotechnology.hu/online/2002_butterfly/index.html , which shows the huge diffe...

A good picture!

This point about a phase objective being usable for DIC also came up on Yahoo Microscope group recently.

See http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Micr ... sage/41745 for details.

--Rik

Thanks for the comments & questions, folks! Irwin , the Journal of Irreproducible Results lives at http://www.jir.com . I found it with Google, of course. The reason I looked it up is that I recalled decades ago seeing them publish a not-to-be-repeated scanning electron micrograph showing a salt cry...

This is great! A beautiful flower, well composed and lit, sharp as a tack, and I don't notice a single stacking artifact. You say "stacked in Helicon and hand layered". Does that mean manual touchup of a single Helicon run, or did you run Helicon on multiple slabs and then put the partial results to...

Maybe I understand, I must shot a lot of photo with different little distance, it's true? Correct. See An Introduction to Extended Depth of Field Digital Photography to start. The number of photos can be as small as two or three, or as big as 100 or more. It depends on how small the subject is, and...

http://www.janrik.net/MiscSubj/2007/NoctuaPronubaScales20071219/NoctuaPronubaScales.jpg This image turned up while I was testing a mod to my stacking setup this evening. It's a little bit of the front wing of Noctua pronuba , the Large Yellow Underwing . The only thing that's unusual about this pic...

Interestingly, while trying to cross my eyes I got another illusion - two photographs does not look parallel but forming an angle like "V". Very observant! That happens to me if I go very cross-eyed and for whatever reason don't get the images fused. I think it's due to minor muscle imbalance that ...

Thanks, all!

Yes, this is a beautiful piece of work. I am very pleased to be able to share it with you.

--Rik

Nice work, Irwin -- I'll bet this objective has got you hooked now. :D I'm impressed that the objective will cover a full frame with good quality. Objectives are really only designed to cover the field of an ordinary eyepiece, typically 16-20 mm diameter. But this one seems to be holding up well eve...