Locked in the basement...

Despite reporting in a previous post about a new traveling companion I must now recant and retire said companion to a cold Manitoba winter, locked in the confines of my basement lab. After a careful examination of every nook and cranny of our Gulf Coast rental unit in the online photos, I couldn't find a place suitable for a photomicrography setup. And so, a thorough examination of the Laguna Madre microfauna will have to wait for now, and if I'm lucky, proceed next year.

As a placeholder for next spring, I'll share a little video I assembled.

Experimenting with video on a possible Glaucoma genus micro-critter

On my second day of experimentation I've finally figured out how to set the white balance for video mode. It turns out that video white balance is set separately from digital stills WB. Next up will be the onerous task of trying to figure out what exactly the real colours seen through the eyepiece are. I ended up taking four separate videos, all of which turned out much better than previous attempts. However, they would all benefit from some artistic, or is that ruthless, editing so I'm only going to upload one here. The organism, a possible member of the Glaucoma genus, expelled a small portion of it's body interior just prior to taking the above shot. The contractile vacuole is still partially distended as a result of that expulsion. Not sure what was happening there and I wish I had caught it on video.

The one video I'm going to post here just shows a slow moving ciliate but displays quite nicely the operation of the contractile vacuole.

Rotifer deli...

I just threw together the new (old) Leitz, the new (old model) Canon T3i and a water sample with a few bdelloid rotifers and tried out the new video capability of my setup. This first video was shot in HD and features a resting rotifer that is not at all shy about sharing the details of her innards with observers at large.

This second video was shot at a resolution of 640 x 480. It features a group of bdelloid chicks hanging out at a detritus bar. If you look closely at the stomach area of the first rotifer you'll be able to make a diatom that was recently ingested.

These first attempts have captured my interest and I hope to do more soon. I've seen several interesting events in the last week or so, unfortunately before I had the camera. So for now I've got to keep looking and hopefully something special will pop up in my oculars. I'll also keep working on cleaning up the images and getting rid of the color cast.

Santa's practice fly-by...

Not that I believe in Santa anymore but how else can I explain the appearance of this little accessory to my new toy 2? My guess is that inventories for this item on North Pole shelves were through the roof and room had to be made for the new models. And since my wife still believes in the cheery, fat man I think I might get away with another one. :)

This will open me to another facet of this wonderful hobby...video. Viewing with these old eyes is getting tougher all the time and having a video to examine, in detail and at my leisure, micro-critters will be a big boon. And video doesn't show all those floaters at high power either. :)

My New Toy...

My fishing season is coming to a close and my thoughts are again gravitating to micro-musings and a trip to the Texas Gulf coast. The proximity of surf and Laguna Madre flats has me itching to explore that micro world but that darn Zeiss Universal is just too bulky to haul around in my travels. The microscopy muses must have been watching because a few weeks ago that itch ended when the perfect traveling companion, second only to my dear wife, fell off the truck and dropped into my life. My new toy...

Now I've got to look for the proper photo adapter to document what I find. Not the setup I'm trying to achieve with my Zeiss but at least good enough to properly document my findings. If anyone has any suggestions, parts or ideas regarding viable camera attachment options please let me know.

Sample with the new camera adapter...

I haven't done much with the microscope lately; it's different waters that are drawing me to them this time of year. However, I am anxious to post a sample photo with my new photo adapter so I can show there is a difference in quality. Still not perfect, so the search for the proper adapter is still ongoing.

This morning I found a nice subject, a Closterium, and here it is. Not sure what the magnification of the photo is but the picture was taken with a Zeiss Neofluar 25X/0.60 and a Kpl 8X eyepiece. Magnification of the adapter is about 2.5X so it's not the optimum mag for my Canon 40D. If I could find a lower power Kpl eyepiece it would help. Better yet would be the proper Zeiss adapter for my Universal. Also, contrast has been enhanced with oblique illumination.

Last photos with the old setup...

Christian, who sold me my microscope, has come up with an improved camera adapter for me. He cobbled together an afocal system using a Leitz lens, some ABS tubing and various other handmade parts and materials. And it does work better than what I had before! So I'll post some of the images I've taken using my old setup before starting with the new. I'll also include a video taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS4. First the video. A clip showing an amoeba moving along with nice detail of the particulate matter oozing into the advancing pseudopoda. That rod issuing from it's rear end is likely a cyanobacteria that it had previously decided to ingest.

I found a couple of samples of pediastrum, a genus of algae, in one of my samples. This photo was taken using phase contrast.

This image was taken with brightfield illumination.

Another type, again using phase contrast lighting.

 I think this is a diatom frustrule.

No idea what this is. Possibly a member of the Genus monoraphidium.

Similar to the above image, same amount of information about it.

 A species of Phacus, different than some of the beautiful ones I referred to in an earlier post. This version is more of a disc shape than the other one reported.

Another shot of the Phacus with a bit of detail of the flagella at it's front.

Is this one of the heliozoans?

Amoenba gluttony...

While  looking through some old water that I was going to toss I found an amoeba chowing down on a  rather long filamentous algae, likely one of the cyanobacteria. Although a valiant effort was made to down (surround) the hapless meal, common sense finally prevailed and the meal was ejected...no worse the wear. I took a few photos that capture the attempted ingestion.

Here was my first look at the attempted ingestion

Moving along...

Not sure this will work...

The meal has been disgorged

Predator and prey in harmony

I also found another couple of amoeba in the water drop.

And another...

And this neat looking diatom (I think)

Fishing at Willow Creek

This post was supposed to feature unbelievable fishing exploits accompanied by photos of huge fish (in my other blog) and a smiling angler. Luckily I brought along a few specimen bottles so I didn't go home entirely empty-handed. Sometimes it pays to have two great hobbies.












The algae samples from willow creek held a number of diatom species that I wasn't familiar with. Not that I'm familiar with diatoms, it's just that the shapes and sizes of these were different than I was used to as a fledgling biologist. Here is one of the longer ones, about 150 microns long.

Here is a nicely patterned one.

And perhaps the empty frustule of a similar one.

A Closterium desmid. These are actually quite interesting in that they have little moving bodies in both tips. These are crystals that are powered via Brownian movement and are supposedly used to tell them which end is up.

Another Closterium Desmid.

One of those amoeba with radial arms. This is the first one in which I've seen a pseudopod extending from the body, if that's what it really is. I'm now getting a little confused...might this be a centroheliozoan? The radial arms would suggest so, the pseudopod points to an amoeba. Anybody know what this is?








 
Here is a picture of a Phacus, one of the Euglenids. This is a gorgeous creature in life and can be quite graceful in exploring it's drop of water. It's hard to describe what it actually looks like...it bears a certain resemblance to a 3 bladed arrowhead if you know what that looks like.









Here is another view of the same individual, this time showing the flagella. These little guys move forward at the flagella end and spin gracefully along their path.

More ditch dwellers...

I feel somewhat like the coachman flogging his dead horse since the images I post seldom portray the details I encounter through the eyepiece. I'm going to put up this last set of pictures and wait until my camera adapter is set properly before posting more images. Unless of course something terribly interesting unfolds beneath my objective.

 I had been looking at these circles for some time, unable to figure out what they were. Well, yesterday after staring at one for a while I noticed some movement on the periphery and...Ahah! Pseudopods...and I had myself another amoeba. This one looks like a member of the Genus Arcella, perhaps Arcella hemisphaerica. It was neat to finally figure out this was an amoeba.

I found this specimen with the amoeba completely out of it's test (shell). It was alive and was moving, eventually raising the test and slowly starting to move under it. I moved on to other explorations before it's move was complete but my hope is that it found its way back into the house.

Another amoeba, no idea what this type is other than it seems to be one of the "naked" versions.

And might this be even another one?

A different one with a better view of the rays. Or is it a different type?

This diatom frustule had a somewhat different shape than most of the other ones I had seen... usually pennate so I snapped a picture.

 I had been following gastrotrichs around for a while trying valiantly to get a picture, to no avail. These critter are fast and elusive, preferring to slow down only when covered by detritus. Anyway, I did manage this shot as a souvenir of my nonproductive pursuit.

An unidentified ciliate.

Another.

A flagellate.

Another?

Alga?

Objectives 101

I'm barely out of Kindergarten on this subject myself so this one is for the raw newbies. I going to try to frame this in the way I would have liked to see it presented 6 months ago. Since my microscope is an older 160 mm T.L. Zeiss, most of my information applies mainly to that microscope. However each of the other "big four" follow a similar format.

Objectives are the heart of the microscope and likely the most important component in delivering a good image to the eyepiece or camera sensor. Objectives are built up with differently shaped lenses and usually the more glass, the better the image. Let's look at why that is. Lenses have three fundamental problems:

1. Different wave lengths of light (different colors) focus at different points out from the lens with red light being the furthest away and violet being the closest. This happens because each color has a slightly different refractive index and thus comes out of the back of the lens at a different angle. Of course white light includes all the colors between red and violet so your depth of focus is spread out rather than at a point, which is what we want. This is called Chromatic aberration and is generally corrected for to some degree in even the cheapest lenses.

2. Light rays coming to focus from the outer edge of the lens do so at a different spot than those coming through the center. This is called Spherical aberration and can be corrected, but at a cost.

3. A flat image projected through a lens will result in a slightly curved image. This results in uneven focus across the face of the image. For example, the center of the field can be in focus while the outer edge is slightly blurry. This can be fixed, again at a cost.

The least expensive lenses are the Achromats or Achromatic objectives. These are corrected for two colors; red and blue and also corrected for spherical aberration for the color green.These are OK for viewing but not so good for photography. If you must take a picture, best results can be obtained using a green filter and viewing the prints in B&W.

Next up are Planachromats or just plain Plan objectives. These are corrected similarly to the achromats with additional correction to create a flat field. These are the minimum that should be considered for photography.

The Neofluars, sometimes called semiapochromatic, are another step up. These lenses have flourite  elements and are corrected for 3 colors but not for flatness of field. Many are used for photography but are appropriately cropped to exclude the unfocused areas.

The cream of the crop are the Planapochromats (or planapos) and these are corrected for everything but unfortunately are subject to delamination, at least for some brands. So, eBay buyer beware. These lenses also enjoy the highest NA figures so are best if resolution is a primary goal.

And what type of microscope should you be aiming these objectives for, given that you want to study pond water? Least attractive is brightfield but with oblique illumination you can enhance contrast quite a bit, perhaps enough to enjoy the hobby. But in my mind the minimum you want to look at is Phase contrast and if you can afford it...DIC is the gift from the gods when it comes to viewing and photographing phase objects.

That's it for now. Hopefully I haven't lead you astray and this little explanation will lead to further study. After these basic considerations there is the whole subject of how they are to be used, lit, aligned, etc. Google can again be your friend.

Denizens of the Ditch

Rotifer Cafeteria

I found a few more lively things in the ditch beside my home and snapped a few pictures. On the camera adapter front, things look a bit promising. The fellow who sold me the scope is working on adapting a Leitz relay lens to my Canon. This would allow the use of a Zeiss objective and, hopefully (with fingers crossed), would result in crisper images. But I digress.

This little fellow was worm-like and seemed to run across my view on front and back legs. A look through all my "critter" guidebooks seemed to indicate this was a larva of some type of Diptera, a two-winged fly. Closest picture looked like a Tendipes.

This is one of those no-idea-what-it-is ciliates. It was surrounded by what appeared to be cilia and if I remember correctly, moved fairly slowly. I'm tempted to call it a Silliate but that wouldn't be very scientific.

This is likely some alga in the act of dividing or multiplying, or whatever it is they do in trying to take over the world. Or could it be a set of designer spectacles that a tardigarde happened to lose?

This is one of those colonial flagellates commonly found in ponds; this one has 32 members (I counted them). Each individual has a couple of flagella that help propel the organism around the slide. I'm not certain but this may be a Pandorina.

I found what appears to be a Cyclops larva without ever seeing any large egg sacks on the female cyclops which are plentiful in my water samples. I've only observed what seems to be the start of these egg sacks. This little guy was very active until the water evaporated enough, with help from some tissue paper, to somewhat hinder his exuberance. A couple of red eye spots are visible on the front of his head.

Another one of those "Hmmmm???" critters. Very likely a Euglenid but I have no idea beyond that. I'm looking forward to the day when I can start getting closer to some level of recognition.



That's it for this session. Fishing season starts this Saturday and, unless we are inundated with continuously bad weather, I anticipate my postings will be somewhat diminished. Until later then.