Three random critters

Starshade · Post by **Starshade** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 1:53 pm

A copepod in polarized light. Stack obviously does not cover the whole crustacean.

A water bear with incorrect DIC setup, without a flash, and unsuccessful focus. Surprisingly, the shot overall looked interesting. Wish I could make a stack out of that animal.

An unknown diptera larva. ID? Anyone? That guy was in my film and moved its guts in a peculiar way.

curt0909 · Post by **curt0909** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 3:16 pm

Very good. #1 is my favorite. I like the effect of an incomplete stack on the copepod. It almost looks like a pastel for me.

discomorphella · Post by **discomorphella** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 5:00 pm

Number 1 is my favorite. I really like the "array" of eggs with the birefringent edges. Now I have to go find a egg-bearing copepod. And not smash it to bits with my heavy-handed coverglass technique...

David

Starshade · Post by **Starshade** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 4:39 am

Thank you guys.

David: Copepods and coverslips? that sounds so incompatible! I made photos without coverslips but with lots of nail polish work to constrain the area in which these annoying little bugs can move. But that gonna kill them fast if you are using bright light. Don't try to polish the crustaceans either, it doesn't work the desirable way, trust me=) In any case you will need lots of patience.

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:14 am

It's #3 for me. I have made my own well slides, but always use coverslips. I thought the curve of the water drop without a slip to flatten it would make it impossible to get a decent image?

Starshade · Post by **Starshade** » Sat Mar 31, 2012 2:11 am

If you use a 10x, the water surface doesn't harm the image quality normally. When I make wells I do cover them with a slide anyway, but the reason why I chose not to do it with a copepod was because it definitely did not feel comfortable under it. Sounds like an unlikely explanation, but perhaps under a coverslip the temperature rises faster and they kind of don't enjoy being boiled alive.

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Sat Mar 31, 2012 5:22 am

I have a small 3 gallon glass tank that is simply overrun with copepods and cyclops. I try to treat them nice and even put them back in the tank after their stint on the slide.

My well slides are made from a flat slide which I glued a "window frame" affair made from thick acrylic salvaged from bubble wrap they sell the more expensive items in. The glue is clear nail polish. You can't tear this stuff, almost can't cut it. It must be a 16th of an inch thick, but works very good. The bugs have room to move.

A friend of mine has sent me some round glass IR filters that I put over the outlet of my field lens, under the condenser, and it seems to virtually stop 90% of the heat coming off the halogen lamp housing. These are amazing. I'll try to find out where he bought them.

Here is a link to the place that sells them;

http://www.surplusshed.com/

Then search for heat absorb.

discomorphella · Post by **discomorphella** » Sat Mar 31, 2012 10:00 am

If your scope's lamp house doesn't already have one ( or even if it does) you can, as Mitch suggests, supplement it with another short-pass filter. Edmund Optics sells Schott KG-1 and KG-3 IR absorbing glass filters. See for example
http://www.edmundoptics.com/products/di ... uctid=1934
The Leitz, Olympus and Nikon scopes I have worked with typically have at least one similar element in the illumination train. If not, adding the KG-1 or KG-3 filters will make a substantial difference in water loss from a wet mount. If you are using an LED as your source, you probably don't need to worry about it.

David

Starshade · Post by **Starshade** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 11:44 am

Thank you guys! That's exactly what I was missing so much... I wish I knew about such simple and obvious thing.