Nikon
Small World competition, New York City, Sept. 2003 - Ted
Kinsman (USA) describes and illustrates how he enjoyed his attendance
at the awards ceremony for this well known competition.
Dodo,
extinct species - see also 'amateur microscopist' - Jim
Battersby (UK) remarks on the increasing difficulties of
obtaining reagents and materials and the possible effect
this may have on some areas of the hobby.
Artefacts
in photomicrographs - An
illustrated report by Klaus Henkel (Germany) on his
studies of the 'ring artefacts' observed with some
Nikon Coolpix digicam models when used for photomicrography.
In Adobe Acrobat® pdf format.
Leitz
Diavert focussing assembly - Steven
West (USA) presents illustrated guidelines on how to correct
stiff focusing in this microscope model.
Microscope
image stacking with the Leica CME, Canon Ixus 400 digicam
/ 'RemoteCapture' and CombineZ4.2 software by Alan
Hadley - Ian Walker
(UK) shows how the timelapse / remote control software bundled
with most Canon consumer digicams is ideally suited
for quickly creating image sequences for stacking with the
popular and powerful CombineZ software.
Book
review: 'A field guide to bacteria' by Betsey Dexter Dyer - Walter
Dioni (Mexico) reviews this book, which he describes as
an 'exciting book for the amateur microscopist'. Illustrated
with a selection of Walter's own bacteria images.
A
gallery of benzoin oxime photomicrographs - Brian
Johnston (Canada) shares an attractive series of images
taken using darkfield illumination and polarized light.
Mounting
digicams with zoom lenses over the microscope - Paul
James (UK) presents a neat adaptor design to allow two different
digicam models to be quickly interchanged for photomicroscopy.
Image
sharpening using the unsharp mask - Brian
Johnston (Canada) gives an illustrated introduction to the
correct choice of parameters when using this common image
editing tool.
Life
in the Mississippi - Howard
Webb (USA) reports on his boat trip to take plankton samples
in this river and finds the exotic water flea Daphnia
lumholtzi.
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In
focus:
On
Closer Inspection
is a beautifully presented web site for microscopy
enthusiasts being developed by Tom Webster.
It has an excellent and growing range of resources
by himself and colleagues.
Little
Imp Publications is a superb venture by
microscopy enthusiasts which
offers many valuable resources. In addition
to the wide selection of CD's of hard to
find and/or expensive older paper publications
now in the public domain e.g. Schmidt's
Diatom Atlas (first 268 plates), they also publish a
very fine paper publication 'The Amateur Diatomist'.
Visit the web site for subscription details,
ARCHIVE ISSUE contents and CD list/suppliers.
Other web site resources include valuable info'
on Watson microscopes.
Topical
News:
Congratulations to NASA for the
successful landing of their 'robot geologist'
'Spirit' on Mars and which is soon to explore
the Mars surface. The rover includes a
'microscopic
imager'. Good luck for the success of the
second rover 'Opportunity' later this month.
The rover missions can be followed at the
NASA
Mars Exploration Rover Mission web site.
Unfortunately contact
with the Beagle
2 Mars lander (which included an exciting
scientific instrument package including a microscope)
has been unsuccessful since it landed on Dec.
25th and its fate is uncertain. The
ESA
Mars Express on which Beagle 2 'piggybacked'
to Mars is successfully orbiting the planet and
shortly to start its mission.
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We are delighted to receive contributions
small or large from microscopy enthusiasts
whether a novice or expert. If you have an
image, tip or article, why not share it,
this magazine is what you make it! Have a
chat with us,
to see how we can help share your
interests.
