Inclusion in quartz grain

[Beatsy]

I found these polished "gemstones" in a £1 bargain bin recently. Tiny little things, probably scraps from tumbling larger stones, but a quick look with a loupe revealed some with interesting occlusions so I picked them up for a high-mag tinkering session.

Turned out there were only two different types of inclusions and most were too deep in the stones to get a sharp image at higher mag. However, the one featured in the first pic had some inclusions near the surface that captured OK. I used a 20x Mitty pushed down to 13.5x onto APS-C to take a stack of 140 images. Zerene PMax stereo with no retouching.

No earth shattering result, but a very interesting interlude for just £1 spent - and I'm left with several potential "tiny insect mounts" for use in future studio macros too. Winner

The jar of stones

13.5x closeup of one inclusion

[physicsmajor]

Very nice, I really like stereo views into inclusions and transparent crystal surfaces!

These inclusions are most likely rutile (titanium dioxide). To the naked eye they look like golden needles, but all the lovely crystal texture along the spike is revealed in high mag.

[RoxnDox]

Oh, I like those - lovely inclusions. My long-ago mineralogy agrees that rutile is a likely suspect