As this is the festive season I thought I would wish all forum members the compliments of the season with this 'Christmas Tree' The subject is an old slide of the centre part of a mallow flower.The picture shows the anthers of the flower with pollen grains. For a beautiful article on the mallow flower see here
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/ind ... allow.html . I have made two versions, both taken on my Nikon Diaphot microscope. The first was taken using a Nikon X2 0.05 Plan objective, the second using a X5 0.1 BD Plan DIC objective. This second objective needed a BD -> RMS adapter to enable it to be mounted and an extension on the stage to enable it to reach focus. The method of illumination was the same in each case. Polarised light with a full wave compensator was used and a black background was achieved by using a Ph2 phase ring as a darkfield stop. The images are stitches of 13 pictures (X2), 47 pictures (X5).
X2 Objective version. Large version here
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=651 ... 243453b1ff
X5 BD DIC objective version. Large version of this image here
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=475 ... a034efa898 .
As usual the large versions look nicer .

Leitz Ortholux 1, Zeiss standard, Nikon Diaphot inverted, Canon photographic gear