Christmas Tree Crystals
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
Christmas Tree Crystals
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
Cross eyed stereo.
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My other results
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Dave
Cross eyed stereo.
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My other results
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Re: Christmas Tree Crystals
Very nice.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing.
Re: Christmas Tree Crystals
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
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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
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Last edited by micro_pix on Tue May 11, 2021 1:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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- Posts: 5090
- Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:31 pm
Re: Christmas Tree Crystals
Where do you get amino acids?
Mike
Mike
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
Re: Christmas Tree Crystals
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
Dave
Re: Christmas Tree Crystals
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
Cheers, Karl
Re: Christmas Tree Crystals
Last set turned out great.
Happy to see you got it to work.
Thanks for sharing.
Happy to see you got it to work.
Thanks for sharing.
Re: Christmas Tree Crystals
Thanks!
I just had a go with the amino acid Taurine and it made some interesting patterns too.
Dave
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I just had a go with the amino acid Taurine and it made some interesting patterns too.
Dave
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Last edited by micro_pix on Tue May 11, 2021 1:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Christmas Tree Crystals
Amazing photos!
Re: Christmas Tree Crystals
Love them all but the first one is great! Tis the season!
Re: Christmas Tree Crystals
Very nice.
Just ordered some Taurine and will give it a try.
Thanks for sharing
Merry Christmas and happy new year.
Just ordered some Taurine and will give it a try.
Thanks for sharing
Merry Christmas and happy new year.
Re: Christmas Tree Crystals
Thanks for the tip.
- Robert Berdan
- Posts: 319
- Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2017 8:58 pm
- Location: Calgary
- Contact:
Re: Christmas Tree Crystals
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
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
Re: Christmas Tree Crystals
Thanks Rob,
I'm using 60% water 40% Ethanol, 4:1 Beta Alanine to Glutamine, flash freezing then heating.
Dave
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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.
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I'm using 60% water 40% Ethanol, 4:1 Beta Alanine to Glutamine, flash freezing then heating.
Dave
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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.
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