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What feels like a long time ago, all the way back in 2020, when I first started my microscope journey, I made myself a condenser using UV fused silica instead of glass. This was so I could use it for ultraviolet microscopy (you can see the early post

This post is a bit of a double whammy. First, I’ll share some diatom images from a microscope slide with a very unusual mountant – mercury iodide. Second, I’ll talk about the useful and multifunctional objective I used to take these images – a Zeiss 40x Plan Apo, with an iris and a phase contrast ring.

Enough talk. Images. Here are 4 images of a diatom called Pl...

A vital part of my microscopy work is how best to store my slides to keep them protected and clean for the long term. For details on what I do read the latest my post on my museum website (DiatomImaging.com) where I show the MicroChamber shelf liner from Conservation Resources Ltd (see

Always nice to get an award for my imaging work, especially from such a distinguished organization as the Quekett Microscopical Club. I was awarded the 2025 “Barnard Certificate for Excellence in Photomicrography, Technical Category”, for my image of the diatom Pyrgodiscus armatus from a slide prepared by Michel Haak.