I shared some a long time ago: https://www.instagram.com/p/CLFGPuIBFre/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Those are lovely images! I am intrigued that in these images the large "holes" in the main body indeed look like empty holes, where the corresponding things are filled with a sort of grid in Beatsy's...

PS. I have a *tiny* cleaned sample of the Russian diatomite that K. tripedia is found in. Sadly, I only found two broken examples in the whole sample (enough for two moderate-sized strews). One of the finds at least has two of the "stalks" intact - but it only acts as confirmation that the species ...

Always nice to see a SEM image to check optical images against. Thanks for sharing those. As it happens, last night I finally found a perfect K. elaborata and I'm currently figuring out the best way to mount it for extreme macro. The goal is to produce an (optical) image much like the first one you ...

Thanks both. I won't need conical path then as I don't do rocking images. I now know why there's a Y-Shift parameter too, which I won't use either. Perfect. Cheers.

Hi Nick, welcome to the group.

All that for $300!!? Good grief. That's at least 20 Christmases rolled into one there. Both exceptional scopes, but particularly the Vanox with DIC. Congratulations!

Cheers
Beats

I searched this forum and tried Google, but I can't find much (any) information on the "conical path" option, only references to having used it and one oblique reference related to rocking and x/y shift.

What does conical path do and when should, or shouldn't, I use it?

Thanks
Beats

...now i also see the cup shaped morphology of the protuberances. It's true that what you see in the stereo *is* cup-shaped, but that's the inside/bottom surface of the hollow ocelli, connected to the stalk. The hi-res views show a different pattern with near-parallel rows of pores running right ac...

Haha, not SEM. But I did find a colour REM image of the big pores online. https://www.ultrastruktur.bio.lmu.de/de ... marin.html

It's rather satisfying to have resolved so much optically. Nothing like the REM, of course, but pretty good for the resolution available.

Cheers

Pull it into your favorite stereo viewer so you can zoom in and crop at the same time. (I use either StereoPhoto Maker or Zerene Stacker, Tools > Stereo > View Existing Stereo Pair > From Input File.) Thanks Rik. I hadn't spotted that feature. It will be very useful. I'm somewhat ashamed to admit I...

Wow, beautiful! The stereo makes the shroom-like appendages really pop out of the plane. I wonder what these appendages are useful for ... I understand why people can get addicted to putting diatoms under their scopes! By "chipped" you mean that little dent at the lower edge? C'mon! :wink: The plat...

Thanks for your comments everyone.

Pau, bigger version here. You'll be looking out of your ears if you get too close though

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/534 ... 8c4d_o.jpg

I intended to crow about finally finding a *perfect* example of this species after several years of searching. Not constantly searching, just as and when I got material that contained this species. Every example I found to date (that was more than a broken fragment) had either something missing, a h...

I ordered this one. https://www.mjkzz.de/collections/ultra-series/products/ultra-mini-rail-v2-kit-incl-ir-controller?variant=42408686813429 I have a similar dial gauge to yours, but the 0-100 scale goes right round the dial. Measuring "known thickness" feeler gauges (also checked on a hi-res microme...

For short-lived subjects like fragile flowers, flash is very helpful, to avoid the continuous light source over-heating the subjects and causing them to wilt during a long stack. I had the "clever" idea of using a tiny plastic centrifuge tube as a vase to stand small flowers in, with wet cotton woo...

Main thing is to pick the right kind of sheet. There will be a few layers of "stuff". Sometimes there's a ~2mm thick opaque but transluscent sheet of material - that's not what you want. The diffuser is not much thicker than paper, smooth on one side with a fine frosted texture on the other. If you ...