The Excitation Filters will convert the Macropod into a system that is capable of capturing fluorescence. They will work with any camera utilizing the MT-24 EX Dual twin lite flash by Canon. It is recommended that the Macropod be used for magnifications greater than 5x due to the reduced levels of light being emitted.
Blue excitation fluorescence filters are designed with a narrow passband excitation range (20 nanometers) in order to minimize autofluorescence and photobleaching. The longpass barrier (emission) filter is capable of transmitting signals from green, yellow, and red fluorophores that have significant absorption in the upper blue wavelength region. The filters have a longpass dichromatic mirror with a cut-on wavelength of 505 nanometers.
The device is made to work with and fit the MT-24EX Flash by Canon. (Flash is not Required)
If you’ve never taken an advanced course in the geosciences… then it’s likely that you’ve never seen an image like the one below.
Hornblende and Plagioclase in Thin Section
This is an image of a geological thin section, which represents the crystalline matrix and composition of a particular rock type. In the past, the only way to see properties such as these would have been to place a paper thin slice of rock onto a polarizing or petrographic microscope, which is distinguished from the more usual biological microscope in that it is equipped with a rotating stage and two polarizing filters – one below the sample and one above it.
Petrographic Microscope
The problem is, polarizing microscopes are expensive and the reason why you’ve never seen images like those shown in the video is because access is limited to geology students and research professionals.
This is a problem considering that many of the most intimidating subjects can be taught and understood in the context of geology. The Andes of South America are mostly made from a rock called Andesite, which contains minerals such as Plagioclase, Pyroxene and Hornblende. These minerals can be further broken down into compounds containing elements such as Calcium, Sodium, Iron, Silicon, Aluminum and Oxygen; only to name a few. This demonstration is one logical approach to instructing young students about atoms.
Similarly, much of what we know about evolution comes from fossils found in the rock record. These rocks contain minerals, structures and other depositional features that provide information about the origin and time of formation. Seeing these features is a thruway to plate tectonics, which is one of Earth’s greatest natural examples of popular mechanics and physics.
So for reasons we’re obviously passionate about, we wanted to develop a low-cost solution to the petrographic microscope that would allow students in primary and secondary schools to experience information that has never been available to them in the past.
Petrographic Analyzer
That’s why we’ve created the Petrographic Analyzer. The Petrographic Analyzer can be used in conjunction with any stereoscope or hand lens. It also allows the user to polarize the slide and rotate the stage. The analyzer is internally illuminated for basic observation applications. This makes observing the sample easy to do with any existing stereoscope, but also provides flexibility when imaging. For example, images can even be taken with a camera phone.
For more professional applications, the observer will never lose context of the sample. This is important for quantitating your observations and provides more flexibility when examining the sample. The windows in the side of the analyzer permit the use of external light sources such as fiber optic lights and other camera flashes. Since all of the light is deflected off of a white surface, the light is diffuse enough to allow for extremely high resolution imaging.
50x Pyroxene and Chlorite
The above is an image of Pyroxene and Chlorite at 50x magnification. It yields details beyond clay scale and down to 1 micron in size.
Currently, the analyzer is a 3D printed hardware component with a magnetic base, which stabilizes the apparatus on any stand. The polarizer itself is detachable and can be fixed onto any lens, a stereoscope or placed directly on top of the stage for observation purposes.
Galena is the main ore of lead, used since ancient times. Because of its somewhat low melting point, it was easy to liberate by smelting. It typically forms in low-temperature sedimentary deposits.
In some deposits galena contains about 1–2% silver, a byproduct that far outweighs the main lead ore in revenue. Galena deposits often also contain significant amounts of silver as included silver sulfide mineral phases or as limited solid solution within the galena structure. These argentiferous galenas have long been the most important ore of silver.[citation needed]
Cubic galena with calcite from Jasper County, Missouri, USA; 5.1 cm × 3.2 cm × 2.8 cm (2.0 in × 1.3 in × 1.1 in)
Galena also was a major mineral of the zinc-lead mines of the tri-state district around Joplin in southwestern Missouri and the adjoining areas of Kansas and Oklahoma. Galena is also an important ore mineral in the silver mining regions of Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Montana. Of the latter, the Coeur d’Alene district of northern Idaho was most prominent.
Derbyshire in the UK was one of the main areas where galena was mined.
The largest documented crystal of galena is composite cubo-octahedra from the Great Laxey Mine, Isle of Man, measuring 25 cm × 25 cm × 25 cm (10 in × 10 in × 10 in).
Gneiss ( /ˈnaɪs/) is a common distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks. It is often foliated (composed of layers of sheet-like planar structures). The foliations are characterized by alternating darker and lighter colored bands, called “gneissic banding”.
A drop or droplet is a small column of liquid, bounded completely or almost completely by free surfaces. A drop may form when liquid accumulates at the lower end of a tube or other surface boundary, producing a hanging drop called a pendant drop. Drops may also be formed by the condensation of a vapor or by atomization of a larger mass of liquid. Liquid forms drops because the liquid exhibits surface tension.[1]
A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, then falls through the Earth’s atmosphere as snow.[1][2][3] Each flake nucleates around a dust particle in supersaturated air masses by attracting supercooled cloud water droplets, which freeze and accrete in crystal form. Complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity zones in the atmosphere, such that individual snowflakes differ in detail from one another, but may be categorized in eight broad classifications and at least 80 individual variants. The main constituent shapes for ice crystals, from which combinations may occur, are needle, column, plate and rime. Snowflakes appear white in color despite being made of clear ice. This is due to diffuse reflection of the whole spectrum of light by the small crystal facets.[4]
A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, then falls through the Earth’s atmosphere as snow.[1][2][3] Each flake nucleates around a dust particle in supersaturated air masses by attracting supercooled cloud water droplets, which freeze and accrete in crystal form. Complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity zones in the atmosphere, such that individual snowflakes differ in detail from one another, but may be categorized in eight broad classifications and at least 80 individual variants. The main constituent shapes for ice crystals, from which combinations may occur, are needle, column, plate and rime. Snowflakes appear white in color despite being made of clear ice. This is due to diffuse reflection of the whole spectrum of light by the small crystal facets.[4]
A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, then falls through the Earth’s atmosphere as snow.[1][2][3] Each flake nucleates around a dust particle in supersaturated air masses by attracting supercooled cloud water droplets, which freeze and accrete in crystal form. Complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity zones in the atmosphere, such that individual snowflakes differ in detail from one another, but may be categorized in eight broad classifications and at least 80 individual variants. The main constituent shapes for ice crystals, from which combinations may occur, are needle, column, plate and rime. Snowflakes appear white in color despite being made of clear ice. This is due to diffuse reflection of the whole spectrum of light by the small crystal facets.[4]
A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, then falls through the Earth’s atmosphere as snow.[1][2][3] Each flake nucleates around a dust particle in supersaturated air masses by attracting supercooled cloud water droplets, which freeze and accrete in crystal form. Complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity zones in the atmosphere, such that individual snowflakes differ in detail from one another, but may be categorized in eight broad classifications and at least 80 individual variants. The main constituent shapes for ice crystals, from which combinations may occur, are needle, column, plate and rime. Snowflakes appear white in color despite being made of clear ice. This is due to diffuse reflection of the whole spectrum of light by the small crystal facets.[4]
A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, then falls through the Earth’s atmosphere as snow.[1][2][3] Each flake nucleates around a dust particle in supersaturated air masses by attracting supercooled cloud water droplets, which freeze and accrete in crystal form. Complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity zones in the atmosphere, such that individual snowflakes differ in detail from one another, but may be categorized in eight broad classifications and at least 80 individual variants. The main constituent shapes for ice crystals, from which combinations may occur, are needle, column, plate and rime. Snowflakes appear white in color despite being made of clear ice. This is due to diffuse reflection of the whole spectrum of light by the small crystal facets.[4]
A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, then falls through the Earth’s atmosphere as snow.[1][2][3] Each flake nucleates around a dust particle in supersaturated air masses by attracting supercooled cloud water droplets, which freeze and accrete in crystal form. Complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity zones in the atmosphere, such that individual snowflakes differ in detail from one another, but may be categorized in eight broad classifications and at least 80 individual variants. The main constituent shapes for ice crystals, from which combinations may occur, are needle, column, plate and rime. Snowflakes appear white in color despite being made of clear ice. This is due to diffuse reflection of the whole spectrum of light by the small crystal facets.[4]
A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, then falls through the Earth’s atmosphere as snow.[1][2][3] Each flake nucleates around a dust particle in supersaturated air masses by attracting supercooled cloud water droplets, which freeze and accrete in crystal form. Complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity zones in the atmosphere, such that individual snowflakes differ in detail from one another, but may be categorized in eight broad classifications and at least 80 individual variants. The main constituent shapes for ice crystals, from which combinations may occur, are needle, column, plate and rime. Snowflakes appear white in color despite being made of clear ice. This is due to diffuse reflection of the whole spectrum of light by the small crystal facets.[4]
