Diatoms: Centric&Pennate Slide

[Macro_Cosmos]

Slide by one of my favourite Diatomists, Klaus Kemp.



Oly 40x apo, phase contrast, green interference filter used, oil immersion.
~180 focus stack.
More info: https://flic.kr/p/2jnrpkL
Only a newb like me can make a high power oil immersion look worse than a $50 Achromat...
Without applying oil on the condenser, the result looked horrendous.
Long way to go...

[Smokedaddy]

Very nice. Look great to me. I wonder if Klaus Kemp is still making slides. Last time I spoke with him (via email) he wasn't.

[Macro_Cosmos]

Very nice. Look great to me. I wonder if Klaus Kemp is still making slides. Last time I spoke with him (via email) he wasn't.

Very sadly, he stopped. I probably got the last ever order from him and it took many months. This is party due to covid-19 and partly due to some hardware issues. Nevertheless, I wasn't in a rush and the slides landed safely. Customs didn't steal any. Royal post is very slow but it seems reliable. It takes a lot of time to make larger exhibitions.

As of now, there's one Italian seller (diatomlabs) and another in the Netherlands. Diatomlabs' slides are incredibly expensive, I'll get myself some when the hole caused by my microscope is sealed back up.

I compared my result to many others, it now seems alright. Spent all night fiddling with ZS to get the details I want. I'm using Lanczos8 (16X16) and an estimation radius of 5-10 if anyone's interested, Dmap of course.
My phase annulus was obviously off-centre. I don't have a centring telescope but looking straight through the TL with the camera dismounted seems to do the exact same thing, now centred. I suppose I can slap a basic telescope using the optics I have, ehhh lazy.

[Smokedaddy]

Lanczos8, I'm not familiar with that.

[Lou Jost]

Macro_cosmos, did the choice of interpolation algorithm have a big effect?

[Macro_Cosmos]

Macro_cosmos, did the choice of interpolation algorithm have a big effect?

With the default settings, the stack is just soft, it's kind of like haze, or the lens has been smeared with fog. I played around with the Dmap settings and details started to show, at the expense of WAYYYYY slower stacking speeds. ZS is already very slow.

I doubt my choice of Lanczos8 (16X16) as the rendering interpolator had a huge impact, but lowering the estimation radius gave clear improvements.

[Lou Jost]

Thanks for that info...I am just getting started with diatoms, now that I have found them on my orchid leaves. I had always imagined they were aquatic, but now I know they are everywhere, in vast quantities, and at high diversity!

[Macro_Cosmos]

Thanks for that info...I am just getting started with diatoms, now that I have found them on my orchid leaves. I had always imagined they were aquatic, but now I know they are everywhere, in vast quantities, and at high diversity!

Yep, and there's new types being discovered too, Stefano at Diatomlab told me about a new species he recently found. It's said they account for 50% of the oxygen we breathe and they live in some of the worst conditions imaginable.

[Lou Jost]

Yes, no one has ever looked at the Andean cloud forest epiphyte diatoms, and I bet there are many new ones!
Lou