What have we here?

Post your images made through a compound microscope or made with a stereo/dissecting microscope in this gallery. Images may be of any subject natural or unnatural, living or non-living.

Moderators: MacroMike, nzmacro, Ken Ramos, twebster, S. Alden

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Charles Krebs
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Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2004 10:50 am
Location: Issaquah, WA USA

What have we here?

Post by Charles Krebs »

I should probably know this one, but I have a tough time being certain with some of these smaller ciliates. One "culture" I have is loaded with them! The average specimen seems to be about 15x25 microns in size. I've included a second composite image of individuals that show an interesting "mouth" structure, and in one case, three prominent caudal cilia.

The top shot shows them up against a Volvox. I "discovered" that if I oil my phase contrast condenser to the slide, and rotate it to the dark-field position I can get a very nice "circular oblique" lighting with my 100X by carefully closing the aperture built into the objective. I can't believe I have never tried this before today! I really like the way it looks.

The second image shows 4 individuals taken with conventional brightfield (maybe slightly oblique).

Hopefully there's enough here for you eagle-eyes to tell me what the are :wink:


Image

Image

100X objective, 2.5X photo-eyepiece. Canon 350D. Electronic flash.

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Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Browsed through Jahns and came up with what may possibly be Cinetochilum margaritaceum, 15-45um.
Oval body, oblique truncate at rear. Buccal cavity in posterior half of body, with undulating membranes on both sides of mouth cavity. 3-4 long caudal cilia. Family Cinetochilidae.(Jahns, Phylum Ciliophora pg. 243, fig. 435)
Some very excellent and detailed images, as usual Charlie. :D
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Kenneth Ramos
Rutherfordton, North Carolina
Kens Microscopy
Reposts of my images within the galleries are welcome, as are constructive critical critiques.

rjlittlefield
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Location: Richland, WA, USA
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Awesome images, as always!

I am particularly stuck by how beautifully the upper image illustrates the mucilage coat of the Volvox completely excluding the little ciliates.

I had read about that coat previously, but this image leaves a much stronger impression than any I have seen before.

--Rik

Charles Krebs
Posts: 1200
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2004 10:50 am
Location: Issaquah, WA USA

Post by Charles Krebs »

Ken... you might have it! Thanks.
This looks very close:
http://microscope.mbl.edu/scripts/micro ... geID=11953

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Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Sometimes drawings are more detailed than the actual photographs seen on these sites, with your being an exception Charlie. I have often wondered at some of these websites though. I look at their images and then compare them to those seen here in our forums and we without a doubt have some of the best microphotographers to be found on the web. :D
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Kenneth Ramos
Rutherfordton, North Carolina
Kens Microscopy
Reposts of my images within the galleries are welcome, as are constructive critical critiques.

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