Chironomidae - A Midge Larvae

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 2:37 am

I found this guy in a sample from my microbe aquarium. I took a sample of Hornwort spines from near the top of the water level and put them in a centrifuge tube and spun them for about 6 minutes. Taking a sample of water from the bottom of the tube, this guy was one of the things I found in it.

I had never seen this larvae before, but using Google and some logical search terms it took about 10 minutes to track down an image of this guy and find out what it was. Identification has been a real problem for me, but practice is making me better at it.

The video.

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NikonUser · Post by **NikonUser** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 3:24 am

Great shots.
You must now have the Fluophot perfectly fine-tuned to get such nice detail.
Possibly even more detail in the video. Congratulations.

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 3:35 am

Thanks Tony. It all had to do with the way I was focusing the halogen lamp filament. Once I got that right, my recorded images got 100% better. But, the strange thing is, I see no difference in the eyepieces. I guess the brain can fill in the spaces.

Now there's the mystery. I have felt that video has always shown better detail, which is strange. Not sure if the camera uses a different algorithm or what, but it seems to be true. And I have tried a frame grab from a video, choosing a particularly sharp frame, but it fell apart as soon as it was export as a bmp. Go figure.

And of course, I took a leaf out of your own book, by cleaning up the background in post.

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 6:50 am

Very nice!

Rogelio

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 6:56 am

Thanks for looking Rogelio. Hows your E600 treating you?

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 7:55 am

Mitch640 wrote:Now there's the mystery. I have felt that video has always shown better detail, which is strange. Not sure if the camera uses a different algorithm or what, but it seems to be true. And I have tried a frame grab from a video, choosing a particularly sharp frame, but it fell apart as soon as it was export as a bmp. Go figure.

Video looks great in part because your eyes are accumulating content seen in multiple frames, and in part because you don't have time to critically evaluate any individual frame. Individual frames invariably look bad compared to the video they came from.

--Rik

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 8:09 am

Fascinating video Mitch - thanks!

fpelectronica · Post by **fpelectronica** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 8:23 am

Beautiful photographs and video very definite
Francisco

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 9:41 am

Thanks for looking and commenting Rik, Chris and Francisco.

I had an idea about the video, but not exactly why. I had noticed it almost from the beginning. I mean, beyond the fact that video can show how things can work in concert, rather than just a lifeless still, although a still can be informative also.

For me, the most amazing thing about this guy were those little hands, and the way the black things would come out from the tube.

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 1:59 pm

Mitch640 wrote:Thanks for looking Rogelio. Hows your E600 treating you?

Mitch,

I am upgrading my objectives to Plan Apo and waiting for a Nikon magnification changer (I did a trade the Optem Optizoom in the past so a need a magnification changer). Litonotus is now the owner of my Plan Fluor set.

Rogelio

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 2:07 pm

I will look forward to some images from your scope. But you need to do less trading and more microscoping.