Thanks Moose. Those comments are appreciated.

Thanks Gary. Putting the price in context, and yes I resisted for a long time because of it, what I paid would buy an entire pretty decent 160mm second hand binocular microscope, but it would only be a fraction of the new cost of a single Mitutoyo X10 planapo objective!

You are right it could be chalcopyrite, another copper, iron sulphide closely related chemically to bornite. To a non mineralogist like me the less common iridescent form of chalcopyrite can look pretty similar to bornite. A view of the entire mineral piece might help.

Thanks Jacek. I'm very much enjoying exploring the Heine condenser's features and hope to post some more images taken using it soon.

Very nice result indeed at this rather high magnification. I'm sure people would be interested in the objective and method of illumination if it isn't a trade secret. :wink: I assume the mineral is Bornite, aka 'peacock ore', an iron, copper sulphide mineral known for it's iridescent colours. https:...

Thanks Walter, Ken and zzffnn. You may be too conservative on Heine's dark ground NA limit. Almost all dedicated dry darkfield condenser can provide DF up to NA 0.65. Heine's light cone is very narrow and can likely go up higher, even without oil lens. With oil lens, my Heine can provide good DF for...

Thanks Walter. I like the Heine. One needs to understand what it's good at and what it's not. It's not an especially useful bright field condenser; it can give good (circular) oblique effects; it does very useful dark ground up to about 0.65NA. What it is most useful as is a very effective and flexi...

I had a play with the Heine and a Leitz X70 Phaco fluorite, 1.15, 170mm oil immersion objective. This is not a Pv objective designed for the Heine, but a regular phase objective designed for a conventional phase condenser. One of the virtues of the Heine is that it is supposed to give phase contrast...

Thanks Pau and Jacek Rik -- Foraminifera can apparently be multinucleate, especially the multi-chambered species, though it is not universal amongst forams. " The foraminiferid consists of a outer shell filled with protoplasm. This plasma is differentiated into an outer layer of clear ectoplasm and ...

Thanks Lou. I think 'amazing' can get overused, but this time it is well justified.

Mainly due to the fact that it disintegrated overnight - thought that was un-calcareous behavior Yes that is surprising, but the cylindrical appearance of the cells and their resemblance to bones in a hand immediately brings the Corallines to mind. Curious. I notice you collected it in a marina, th...

It still looks like a classic marine shoreline red alga to me. Some scale on the micrograph would help, but otherwise I'm not sure why you dismiss the Corralina group of red algae. The group includes encrusting and branching tree-like forms, a habit which your example displays. https://en.wikipedia....

Nummulites are: 'fossil or living foraminiferan of the Nummulites genus (or a related genus) that has a disc-like, spiral, calcareous skeleton. Fossil nummulites range up to several inches in size, making them quite impressive protozoa (single-celled, eukaryotic organisms). Nummulite fossils are com...

There are a lot of quite similar red algae found on European sea shores. Yours looks like it belongs to the Corallina group, possibly Corallina officinalis . That would be a place to start.

Nice. I especially like the higher magnification pair. I assume this was taken with the MM-11/Olympus hybrid 'scope you created?
David