And so to the microscope

Last post I was looking for a microscope to help me to improve my view of insects in a piece of amber.  Having sorted out the microscope I have attempted to improve my image of the insects.

The use of top lighting is difficult, producing a high level of glare from the surface of the amber.  The pictures that I took with my camera were very similar.  I am going to have to polish the amber to improve its surface before I can expect a clean image.  Back lighting does not help as the image is seen in silhouette.

Whilst I have the microscope out I decided to take some images of some of my tiniest trilobite fossils.  This one is a 4mm long Elrathia kingi from the Wheeler Shales in Utah USA.

The above image is a 0.8mm long developed larval stage of the same trilobite.  It is very difficult to see with the naked eye in any detail.

This is another tiny trilobite, just 2.6mm long, Brachyaspidion microps.  The microscope image shows it in good detail.  I shall probably take a few more images of these tiny fossils whilst I have the microscope to hand.