Green Star Polyp Fluorescence

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 9:33 am

20130718-DSLR_IMG_0077.jpg by pwnell, on Flickr
Living Green Star Polyp, 2x, FLUO-C4

g4lab · Post by **g4lab** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 3:23 pm

GFP? Confocal image??

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 3:44 pm

If I had a confocal microscope I would not be sitting here writing computer software systems - I would be making photographs non stop

Nope this is just standard fluorescence on my BX53 with my new 2x/0.08 PlanApo objective.

It is the GFP fluorophore that I have stimulated, yes. But the emission filter also allowed more yellow-green to come through to make the effect stronger than just purely GFP with a bandpass filter.

arturoag75 · Post by **arturoag75** » Sat Jul 20, 2013 12:08 am

Really great shot ....wow

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Sun Jul 21, 2013 11:36 am

Nice shot!

Rogelio

Firochromis · Post by **Firochromis** » Thu Aug 01, 2013 7:59 am

Hi,

I'm a newbie in this forum and in this hobby. Sorry if this is an appropriate topic for asking advice.

What makes me to dive in this hobby is reef aquariums as well, and the title of this topic bring me here. Nowadays I'm searching for my first 'scope, and due to an expert advice I'm considering an stereoscope. I know nothing about the technique you used but does a stereoscope permit this kind of work? And How much total magnification did you used please?

Regards

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Thu Aug 01, 2013 9:37 am

Firochromis wrote:What makes me to dive in this hobby is reef aquariums as well, and the title of this topic bring me here. Nowadays I'm searching for my first 'scope, and due to an expert advice I'm considering an stereoscope. I know nothing about the technique you used but does a stereoscope permit this kind of work? And How much total magnification did you used please?

Welcome to this forum. The right place for this question would be to open up a new thread in Equipment I guess. But I'll reply here nonetheless.

Stereo microscopes are really cool, but they are very different from a biological microscope. In general if you are going to be looking at subjects that have a pronounced thickness and not too small then a stereo microscope might be better suited. Just be careful - photographing from a stereo microscope is not trivial due to the 3D effect - each eye piece sees a slightly different angle of view, hence the 3D effect. But the monocular camera port can only see either one of these two paths, or in some microscopes the beam is modified to produce a more accurate representation of what you can see.

You can certainly purchase a fluorescence kit for a stereo microscope provided you stick with one of the big four. Do note that unless you go ebay this will get expensive real quick. A new fluorescence light source can easily cost you $5000 just for the light source alone.

I took this photo on an Olympus BX53 biological microscope with fluorescence components. I did not need to and indeed, I could only photograph this using a 2x objective - meaning in this photo, resolving power did not come in to play.

Having never used a research grade stereo microscope before I cannot really compare much more than theoretical differences, but it boils down to what you want to photograph mostly. If it will be subjects that can easily be placed on to a slide with a cover slip then a biological microscope will be better. If it will be mostly thick specimens not too small a stereo might be better.

Best is to ask for a demo of both, play with both and see which works best for you.