Silica wheel

Linden.g · Post by **Linden.g** » Tue Jan 24, 2012 9:45 pm

I struggled a little bit with this one, but I liked the structure. 5 frame stacks using 100x achromat, 2.5 tube lens and cropped by about 50%. Take with DIC on BH-2. Not sure of the ID but it was collected from a peroxide treated marine sample and appears to be silica based.

Cactusdave · Post by **Cactusdave** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 1:32 am

A diatom skeleton I think. Possibly Actinoptychus Sp. http://www.dnr.state.md.us/bay/cblife/a ... arius.html . You will see more of the beautiful detail in this species by taking images at sequential focal planes through the specimen and combining these images with a stacking program.

Edit:

I see you did use stacking, my apologies. I'm surprised the stacking didn't pull more depth detail out though. It's really tricky to make small enough fine focus adjusts with a X100 objective. The lightest touch is needed. Seeing the size and magnification you are using made me doubt my ID somewhat also. Actinoptychus is usually bigger, but I guess this could just be a small one, and I can't think of anything else to suggest.

David

Linden.g · Post by **Linden.g** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 4:42 am

Hi David, I have a very high resolution stepping drive (stackshot) on the focus system. The problem I had was that the object was so small it wasn't trapped by the cover slip and so move around a little. I also didn't see the typical pores you would expect on a diatom so I'm not really sure what it is.
Linden

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 5:11 am

It almost has to be a diatom skeleton, after a bath in peroxide?