Metallic inclusion in beryl

[Scarodactyl]

I wanted to thank everyone who pointed out these amazing 20x planapo objectives from the gene sequencers. The extra thick cover glass correction might be annoying for regular usage, but for imaging inclusions just under the surface in a gem they are very handy.

This is a neat metallic inclusion in a golden beryl crystal from Madagascar, probably hematite or ilmenite or both mixed. The inclusion is just under 1/5 of a mm across.
There is some finnickeyness to using it and I need to get it put on a more suitable tube lens than my Leica Z16, but I am happy with results so far.

[Lou Jost]

That's convenient that they worked out for this application!!! Congratulations on discovering that.

Are you shooting through a thin cover slip and medium?

[Scarodactyl]

No cover slip, just through the polished top of the beryl. The objective seems surprisingly versatile--features on the actual surface look bad, especially highlights, but once you get a bit under it performs quite nicely, and stays good deeper into the stone than I expected too. I am getting bad edge performance but I am blaming my janky setup for that at the moment. It won't be much use for most gem inclusions, but stones like this with lots of very small inclusions throughout should be perfect for it.

[rjlittlefield]

Looks good! Image quality will be quite dependent on surface flatness, as well as polish. If you need higher quality, try adding a cover slip with oil or maybe glycerin between cover slip and specimen.

--Rik

[Scarodactyl]

Whoops, I had two objectives coming in and I got them mixed up. I just realized this was taken on a normal 0.17 corrected Nikon 20x planapo objective. Weirdly they are also being sold for 100 bucks? I understand the unusual gene sequencer ones, but this could be used on a normal scope. Updates to come when the other objective comes in.

I may try that with a cover slip. The surface flatness was quite poor on this beryl, and I was surprised it was not more of an issue.

[Lou Jost]

I may try that with a cover slip.

Don't forget the oil!

[Scarodactyl]

Yup! I do have some, though I'm not 100% sure it's still good (estate find along with most of my nikon accessories). I should order some fresh.

[Lou Jost]

Vegetable oil will probably work well enough since your substrate isn't glass anyway

[abpho]

Very nice.

[Scarodactyl]

OK, the thick cover glass one came in today. I didn't bust out the oil and coverglass yet--it's definitely a bit more finicky to use but still workable--for some reason lighting in particular seemed a bit harder, though I am not sure why. Between the two I think I prefer the 0.17 corrected one, but they're both amazing for 100 bucks I think.
Here are a few test shots--I have an awful lot to learn about photo editing and lighting, these are kind of grainy to put it nicely.

A negative crystal in that same yellow beryl. This is a little trapped bit of the hydrothermal fluid the beryl grew from--these would start out pretty round but over time the surrounding crystal develops flat crystal faces on the inside of the cavity. Often these mimic the crystal shape but these are a lot messier.

Negative crystals again, this time in amethyst. These also don't have a nice quartz-like shape, instead showing a more baroque form.

This is an inclusion in a different beryl, flat skeletal hematite/ilmenite inclusions along with a more three-dimensional of something or other.

Overall I'd say I have a lot to learn about using this but I'm really enjoying it.

[Lou Jost]

Overall I'd say I have a lot to learn about using this but I'm really enjoying it.

Half the fun is the learning part!