Christmas Tree Crystals

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

micro_pix
Posts: 469
Joined: Fri May 11, 2012 12:05 pm
Location: Southampton, Hampshire, UK

Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by micro_pix »

I have seen some really nice x-polar crystal images on here lately so I was inspired to have a go with an amino acid mix. It's a work in progress but it did produce a couple of very seasonal looking photos.

Dave
2020-12-12-16.03.jpg
Cross eyed stereo.
2020-12-13-01.24.jpg
.
.


My other results
2020-12-13-19.26.jpg
.
.

2020-12-13-19.47.jpg
.
.

2020-12-13-19.14.jpg

Sumguy01
Posts: 1715
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2013 11:05 pm
Location: Ketchikan Alaska USA

Re: Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by Sumguy01 »

=D> Very nice.
Thanks for sharing.

micro_pix
Posts: 469
Joined: Fri May 11, 2012 12:05 pm
Location: Southampton, Hampshire, UK

Re: Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by micro_pix »

Thanks.

I managed to get some nice results by experimenting with the mix and process a little. It's hard to squeeze them into the 300k limit so if you want to see them in their full glory they are on my Flickr page.

Dave
.
_Z8A0167.jpg
.
2020-12-14-18.24.jpg
.
2020-12-14-18.31.jpg
.
_Z8A0152.jpg
Last edited by micro_pix on Tue May 11, 2021 1:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

Olympusman
Posts: 5090
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:31 pm

Re: Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by Olympusman »

Where do you get amino acids?

Mike
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

micro_pix
Posts: 469
Joined: Fri May 11, 2012 12:05 pm
Location: Southampton, Hampshire, UK

Re: Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by micro_pix »

I bought them on Amazon. They are sold as food supplements and you can get them in small amounts for under $10. Search for Beta Alanine, L. Glutamine, Taurine, Lysine etc.

Dave

ModelZ
Posts: 71
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2020 4:34 am
Location: Northern Europe

Re: Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by ModelZ »

Very evocative images! Thanks for sharing. And for the purchase bit, too - been wondering whether all these exotic chemicals come with lab access only. In many parts of the world the pharmacies just flatly refuse to sell any exotic chemicals, no matter how small quantity, to common customers.

Cheers, Karl

Sumguy01
Posts: 1715
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2013 11:05 pm
Location: Ketchikan Alaska USA

Re: Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by Sumguy01 »

:smt038 Last set turned out great.
Happy to see you got it to work.
Thanks for sharing.

micro_pix
Posts: 469
Joined: Fri May 11, 2012 12:05 pm
Location: Southampton, Hampshire, UK

Re: Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by micro_pix »

Thanks!

I just had a go with the amino acid Taurine and it made some interesting patterns too.

Dave


2020-12-18-09.01.jpg
.
2020-12-18-09.19.jpg
Last edited by micro_pix on Tue May 11, 2021 1:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

bralex
Posts: 129
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 11:34 am
Location: New Mexico, USA

Re: Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by bralex »

Amazing photos!

houstontx
Posts: 395
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2015 1:07 pm

Re: Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by houstontx »

Love them all but the first one is great! Tis the season!

Sumguy01
Posts: 1715
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2013 11:05 pm
Location: Ketchikan Alaska USA

Re: Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by Sumguy01 »

=D> Very nice.
Just ordered some Taurine and will give it a try.
Thanks for sharing
Merry Christmas and happy new year. 😀

micro_pix
Posts: 469
Joined: Fri May 11, 2012 12:05 pm
Location: Southampton, Hampshire, UK

Re: Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by micro_pix »

Many thanks for the kind remarks.
Sumguy01 wrote:
Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:34 pm
=D> Very nice.
Just ordered some Taurine and will give it a try.
Thanks for sharing
Merry Christmas and happy new year. 😀
I did use Beta Alanine with the Taurine for the last two.

Happy Christmas! And a merry new year!

Sumguy01
Posts: 1715
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2013 11:05 pm
Location: Ketchikan Alaska USA

Re: Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by Sumguy01 »

:D Thanks for the tip.

Robert Berdan
Posts: 319
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2017 8:58 pm
Location: Calgary
Contact:

Re: Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by Robert Berdan »

Very nice images especially the last ones. I got my Amino acids at a nutrition supplement shop called Popeyes, they only had one size large! They worked fine, but what I found is that the solvent you use is important - I ended up using 95% Ethanol (Clearview from liquor store) and water (1:1) and that gave me the best results. Heating the slide with solution of the amino acids briefly also helps. I hope to post an article on my web site in the near future with some of my experiments including different solvents, altering pH etc, I have been working on getting the "flowery crystals" which a few folks get with B-ala and L-Glutamine but unfortunately these folks don't share the details, but I will. I have also tried lidocaine because they were recommended in YouTube video but I couldn't get them to crystallize so I give up for now - anyone have tips on getting lidocaine to crystallized I would love to hear about it.

It is a nice video and the fellow told me he used 95% denatured ethanol as solvent, but it doesn't work in my hands - I tried melts, dried solutions etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxGrI9KW1eo

Cyrstals are perfect for shooting indoors during winter and that is what I have been doing for the past week since we had 30 cm of snow.
Nice to see lots of interest in crystals on this site - they are sometimes easy to produce, but getting really interesting patterns and consistent results is not.
But - they are fun to photograph and the colours are amazing.

Best wishes
Rob

micro_pix
Posts: 469
Joined: Fri May 11, 2012 12:05 pm
Location: Southampton, Hampshire, UK

Re: Christmas Tree Crystals

Post by micro_pix »

Thanks Rob,

I'm using 60% water 40% Ethanol, 4:1 Beta Alanine to Glutamine, flash freezing then heating.

Dave
_Z8A1137_2.jpg
.


This is Glycine and L. Glutamine, the formations were much smaller, all of my photos above were using 4x and 10x objectives, this is using a 20x with coverslip.
.
2020-12-24-16.24.jpg

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic