December 2011
Another year nearly over and I find myself reflecting back over the last 12 months. For me, it was an odd year – redundancy, starting up a limited company, a new Land Rover and 2 months in plaster after falling from the horse. None of this was ‘part of my plan’ last December! When I look back at my microscopy, I don’t think I have touched my amber slides (fossil amber mounts for which I need to identify the insect ‘inclusions’) but I have made good progress with systematic collection and identification of cladocera (water fleas). I have also extended the DIC capability on my main microscope, and the restricted time while I was in plaster gave me the opportunity for a good clear out of unused equipment, and ‘investment’ in other equipment which will, at least in my plans, be more useful. I haven’t yet started to think what I want to do with the microscopes in 2012, but certainly completing the website re-development project with the help of Tony Jarratt, Steve Gill, Charles Hussey, Brian Davidson, Graham Matthews and David Linstead is top of my list – and hopefully theirs as well
! In recent months I have unfortunately become inundated with microscopes and equipment from members’ estates – John Wells, Peter Connolly and Doug Mitchell amongst others and finally crunch time has arrived in the Greaves household where both microscope room and outbuldings have become impossible to move around. I have had to take out storage in one of those big commercial storage centres that seem to be cropping up all over the country and have spent the last three days boxing up and transferring microscope equipment – all 200 cubic feet of it! It is a real novelty to be able to see the floor again in the microscope room, and hopefully have a bot more space for my own activities. All equipment that I have on behalf of others is for sale either through the members’ auction (please bid – and thanks to Tony Jarratt for all his help in uploading the photographs!) or at the microscope sales days around the country.
The Club enters 2012 in a healthy position; membership has crept up towards 420 and subscription fees have been held for the ninth consecutive year. We have used some of the income from the Owen Bequest to develop an exciting new website which should ‘launch’ in March with new features and resources for members, and following election at the AGM I hand over the presidency to Charles Hussey who I am sure will continue to lead the Club and amateur microscopy forward. It only remains for me to wish you and your families a very merry Christmas, and a happy, healthy New Year!
Phil Greaves
October 2011
I’m ‘blogging’ again after a two month gap. Somehow August just passed me by and in September, on the day I planned to write the blog, I took a tumble of my horse (or the President’s Pony as Brian Bracegirdle refers to him!) and snapped my ankle, which required a small operation to screw back together again. I hope you like the photo of President, Plaster and Pony!
I’ve now been in plaster and using crutches for 5 weeks, and have been making the most of the constrained time to get on with some microscopy projects. Probably at the top of my list of backlog projects was to think hard about the equipment I have, what I actually use, and what I use most. As a result of this soul-searching, I’ve sold some bits on E-Bay that don’t really ‘fit’ with what I am doing, and then ‘invested’ in some bits to extend the usefulness of the main instruments I do use. Somehow money coming into my PayPal account from sales never seems ‘real money’ and I’ve enjoyed spending it again on other E-Bay purchases. Of course, it is all too easy to focus on the instrumentation and I have been looking back through the slide collection for rewarding images to photograph. It is interesting how many of the old Victorian favourites still produce the most interesting images with modern instruments and imaging techniques. I hope you like the ‘Pygidium of Flea’
October is one of the most significant months in the Club’s year, with both the Annual Exhibition and the sales day, Microscopium. Despite the crutches, I was able to get lifts to each and thoroughly enjoyed both meetings. The Annual Exhibiton had a stunning array of stereomicroscopes on display as a special feature organised by Lewis Woolnough, and Joan Bingley made sure we were all organised in advance of the event and on the day. Numbers of traders at Microscopium were slightly down this year but the quality of goods on offer for sale remained high and brisk trade was done, followed by lunch in the local pub – a great chance to catch up with friends that I perhaps see once or twice a year.
It has also been a time to commence our website development project. After some months of planning and evaluation, we have contracted with Cubik, a website development company that specialises in charities and has several medical and scientific charities in their client list. Over the next 4 month period we will be working with Cubik to enter the next important phase in the evolution of the Club’s website, and have some significant new ideas that we trust will be incorporated into the new site. Hopefully launching towards the end of January, we hope the new website will have something for everyone, and enable all members to contribute and enjoy the Club no matter how remotely they live from meetings.
Best regards
Phil Greaves
July 2011
Well, the holiday is finally over and I am slowly returning to the ‘real’ world. The holiday was superb – ‘awesome’ as the Americans would say and we have the photos, books bought, horse-riding gear, biological samples, memories and midge bites to remember it by!
We spent two nights in Chicago, then flew to Salt Lake City to pick up a hire car and spent the next 5 days in Wyoming visiting Yellowstone National and Grand Teton National Parks. We then drove 650 miles south to Moab in Utah for Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, before returning via Salt Lake and Chicago. The scenery in this part of America is almost beyond belief; as an ‘Englander’ I am used to views that perhaps stretch for a few miles, perhaps 30 miles at most. In America, the views were typically 80 miles or more to the horizon and it was fascinating to drive for this distance and only encounter a few cows; no towns or ranches, hardly a fence bisecting the land. One of the more amusing features – and we passed several – were dinosaur ‘quarries’ signposted. The national parks were incredibly beautiful and well-managed by the rangers. I have seen the earth ‘boil’ before in the volcanic parts of Iceland so I knew what to expect in Yellowstone, but the scale of the thermal features was again on a scale like nowhere else. As a microbiologist, I was especially pleased to read notice-boards describing the bacterial mats to the park’s visitors, and to see these people talking about ‘thermophilic bacteria’. The colours of these mats, the complexity of the microbial communities that form them were, again, ‘awesome’. I managed to find a book on the microscopic life of Yellowstone on general sale in one of the tourist offices and will review this in the Club’s Journal.
I refrained from taking too much collecting kit or a microscope with me but did have posted (just in time) a larger mesh net for the large branchiopods (tadpole, fairy and clam shrimps) that I enjoy looking for. Whilst we only had a few hours in Salt Lake City, we made the most of the opportunity and drove out to Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake. Here I was able to roll up my jeans (too many biting midges for shorts!) and paddle out surrounded by brine shrimps. I knew the populations were sufficient to support a commercial ‘fishing’ trade, but had not appreciated what the experience of paddling through ‘clouds’ of brine shrimp would be like. And in Yellowstone I had a major success, finding clam shrimps (Conchostraca) in a thermally heated pool near the shore of Yellowstone Lake. These are, in my experience, the rarest of the large branchiopods and this completes me seeing the all of the major branchiopod groups in the wild. I can now die a happy man – but preferably in 40 years time!
Finally, we spent our last morning in Chicago at the Field Museum of Natural History. I had visited there some 15 years before on the end of a business trip but wanted to revisit for a special exhibition on the evolution and domestication of the horse. Both the exhibition and the museum in general are superb, but at a combined entry fee of about £18 per person, it did make me appreciate very much the free access we have in the UK to our national museums. In the main hall of the Field Museum is the world’s most complete T. Rex specimen, nicknamed Sue. I immediately thought of Allan Brinkworth, whose charming wife is also called Sue – so Allan, this photo is for you! (And Sue, please forgive me!).
Best regards
Phil Greaves
June 2011
Where did June go? I must admit that I have used the microscopes very little this month, but I have been spending increasing time on the internet looking at 'microscopical matters'. I have recently joined the Cladocera Interest Group (www. cladocera.org.uk) and been enjoying the material - and especially the identification guides - they offer. I have also been sampling pond water for cladoera in a much more structured way, and preserving samples for identification over the long, dark winter months.
Early in the month I was drawn to the green waters of two large ponds (dug by Capability Brown, or at least under his direction) at Petworth Park in West Sussex. Both ponds have a large population of geese and I was not too confident about what would be present microscopically. How wrong I was! The water contained the most dense population of Volvox that I have ever seen - Volvox soup! They were so dense that I actually had to dilute the sample to examine it under darkfield. I have taken some video and perhaps for my next blog I will learn how to resize this for the website. It has been an interesting start to the pond year, with dense populations of rotifers earlier and now Volvox. Some Hydra in July would be nice!
I have also spent some time this month helping John Wells' relatives clear his microscopy study, make safe the chemicals, and arrange what to do with the slides. At the beginning of this week I enjoyed a 450 mile round trip (via Norwich to deliver a microscope) to meet up with Steve Gill and pass on John Well's microscope slides. The drive was enjoyable - the hottest of days, the music playing and an ice-cream en route. It was also good to pass on the slides to Steve (who will be arranging sales of the slides) and recover the space in my car!
At the Club we have been looking at the next stage of development of the website and have had some interesting progress with a commercial organisation that specialises in charities, and has several scientific and medical organisations within their client list. Tony Jarratt, Charles Hussey, Steve Gill and I are working together to define the requirements but we would appreciate any thoughts on what additional features people would like to see.
Anyway, we're off on holiday in the morning for two weeks, visiting Yellowstone and Utah in America. We have a night in Salt Lake City and I very much hope to get to the Great Salt Lake and look for some of the brine shrimps that the lake is famous for. I've even had to buy a new pond net for the occasion; assuming Yellowstone doesn't erupt, I'll report what we see in the July blog. Enjoy your microscopy!
Phil
May 2011
Firstly apologies for the late appearance of the May Blog; 5 weekends away in a row have caught up with me. More importantly, apologies for the delay in completing the 2011 Members’ Auction. The response was overwhelming with 1 in 5 members bidding and over 1,500 individual bids placed – entering these into my spreadsheet, completing the analysis and having this second-checked has taken some time (as well as almost sending me blind!). However, all is complete and hopefully every bidder has now received either an e-mail or telephone call indicating their results. Some e-mails appear not to have reached their destination so if you have not heard, please do phone or e-mail. Tony Dutton, Graham Matthews and I have been collating winnings, ‘wrapping and packing’ and have sent about 50% of parcels out now – again apologies if you have not yet received yours but hopefully we should be complete by early June.
I’m not sure where the last 5 weekends went to! Certainly the most memorable was the Dale Fort Marine Plankton weekend. A really great bunch of people, pulled together by Carel Sartory’s organisation, and lubricated with gin and tonic. Even at the Club’s Annual Exhibition, I don’t think I have seen so much high quality equipment in one place before, all brought by the participants. ‘Portable’ instruments included a much-modified Zeiss photomicroscope, three Zeiss Tessovar macro systems (is there a collective noun for Tessovars?) and a good range of Wild microscopes (a personal favourite). Some of the photographs show the range of what was in use – and everyone eager to share equipment, reagents and knowledge. I was able to collect some marine Cladocera which have evaded me for some time (due to the lack of a boat for marine plankton trawls) which I hope to photograph over the summer. I think everyone had a successful weekend, renewing friendships and sharing stories; it was also encouraging to see the participation of professional marine biologists and to share our knowledge of microscope technique with them.
The next weekend was spent in Shropshire, amusing myself with dog walks and pond net whilst Margaret participated in an embroidery course. The ponds that I found were not the greatest, but I found a few Cladocera (still to be looked at) but what did amaze me was the density of rotifers in the samples I took back to our caravan each evening. I don’t think I have ever seen such concentrations before and wonder if it is anything to do with the unusual spring weather this year. Has anyone had similar experiences? I have also had some time in the Lake District and visited the Freshwater Biological Association’s HQ at Ferry House on Lake Windermere. The facilities look superb and perhaps we might consider a Club weekend there at sometime in the future.
The microscope room is slowly returning to normal after all this activity, with equipment and projects finding their way back into storage (which seems to have shrunk in the meantime). Hopefully June will be a quieter month and I am looking forward to getting down to examine some of the samples of marine and freshwaters that I have collected over the last few weeks.
Finally, thanks to everyone who wrote or e-mailed with suggestions regarding the Geoffrey Owen bequest. There were some excellent suggestions which the Committee will review at our next meeting (in late June); I will then be able to feedback which projects we initiate this year and which we perhaps hold for the moment. Exiting times for the Club and I hope your suggestions keep coming.
Best regards
Phil Greaves
April 2011
April has been a very busy month, with some ‘challenging’ issues at work, but more importantly trying to finish off 1,001 microscope projects in preparation for the Dale Fort Marine Plankton weekend.
Although I regularly attend day excursions and ‘pond dips’ somehow a weekend requires ten times as much equipment. Projects that have needed completion vary from removal of the previous owner’s sticky labels from the Wild M5 stereomicroscope (bought in November but only cleaned of sticky labels last week) to more complex engineering of two portable macro rails for the anticipated photography of marine invertebrates. Quite why I have left some of these projects for so long is a bit of a mystery to me but that is the advantage of attending a meeting; it does force the issue!
I am actually writing the blog over a few relaxing moments with a Belgian beer in Amsterdam airport, waiting to fly home. I should be back home around 7:00 pm and have the horse to feed and water – and then finish the last parts of the macro rail system in time to leave home again at 7:00 am for the journey to Dale Fort. I’ve been in Amsterdam for two days this week for work, and had the chance of a couple of hours sight-seeing this afternoon. It has to e one of my favourite cities with the canals, 17th century buildings (I can easily imagine Leeuwenhoek’s life in Holland) and the multitude of small, interesting shops. I found antique microscopes for sale in three shops all within a half-mile radius of my hotel. Where else in the world can you walk into a shop and buy an immaculate shagreen leather Culpeper microscope…..for 15,000 Euros! If ever you do find yourself in Amsterdam, do at least window-shop at Meulendijks & Schuit’s amazing shop on the corner of Nieuwe Spiegelstraat – or visit their website at www.staenhuys.nl.
Last week I received a parcel through the post that brought me great pleasure – not so much for the content (a LED ringlight of the Wild stereo) but for the parcel itself. Sent from Hong Kong, it was covered with important-looking airmail and fragile stamps, the postage stamps themselves were of colourful Chinese birds (saved in aid of Guide Dogs for the Blind) and secured with string. Everything a parcel should be, and received from Hong Kong only four days after ordering. So, Mr. Jim Wang if you are reading this, thank you very much for your superb service.
Just time now to buy some duty-free gin (I understand this is an entry requirement for Dale Fort) and wander down to the pleasures of an Easy Jet flight back to Gatwick; I look forward to hopefully sharing some pictures from the marine plankton weekend in my next blog.
Best regards
Phil Greaves
March 2011
Is there a Guinness world-record for the number of microscopes squeezed into one car? Obviously this would need some rules both on size of microscope and size of car; Leeuwenhoek microscopes in a people-carrier would clearly win over Zeiss Ultraphots in a Mini. I ask because early in the month I had 21 full-sized, cased instruments in my car for sale at the Reading Microscopical Society’s meeting. Fortunately, the microscopes were not mine and were being sold on behalf of others, and only two came back home again.
Both the Cobham and Reading meetings were a great start to the year’s meeting calendar, allowing friendships to be renewed after the winter months, and hearing some excellent lectures on both favourite and new topics (I have learnt much about sex in jellyfish, which is a subject I had not previously considered!).
The Cobham meeting provided a unique moment for the Club. 6 out of 7 living Presidents attended the meeting (Ven Dodge, Brian Bracegirdle, Brian Davidson, Bruce Scott, Maurice Moss, Pam Hamer and myself) and the opportunity to capture the moment photographically was not missed.
Click on image for larger version
I am now starting to plan for the Dale Fort Marine Plankton weekend in May, organised by Carel Sartory. I have wanted to attend the meeting for some years but circumstances have previously transpired against me so I am really looking forward to the weekend. I am not quite sure what to expect but I understand it involves possible drowning (or at least a dunking) at sea, various narcotics (sorry, narcotising solutions) and copious gin and tonic – a recipe for an ideal weekend!
Finally PayPal has at last agreed that I am not a Cuban criminal and restored my account after 5 months, multiple phonecalls, and more proof of personal identity than I thought possible. I am now back to trawling E-Bay for those elusive bargains and have just bought a fluorescence filter set for my Leica. I must not get too involved in trying this out as I really, really must prepare for my Presidential Address in May!
Phil Greaves
February 2011
Finally the flies thought it was safe to come out again in the microscope room and I was able to ‘sacrifice’ one using ethyl acetate to try the StackShot system in anger. In the end it wasn’t necessary to decapitate the fly, which was impaled on one of my wife’s embroidery pins and positioned with BluTac (a most useful microscope accessory).
After some initial trial and error I was able to programme the StackShot macro rail to divide the distance between lower and upper focal points of the fly’s head by 100 (a number I programmed for roundness rather than any scientific reason), and then leave the system to advance the focus and fire the camera shutter for all 100 steps. After another cup of tea whilst Helicon Focus combined the 100 stacked images, I was presented with the following final image. It is not perfect, but as a first attempt I am pleased with it and, whilst the StackShot does not do anything that cannot be replicated manually, there is a huge element of fun in setting it up and sitting back while it does its thing.
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I hope you like the image (and I appreciate that fly head aesthetics may not do it for everyone). I am very much looking forward to some more image recording with the system and will report back results.
Technical note: The 100 images making up the final stack were taken using a Canon 5D Mark II digital camera, attached via an adapter to an Olympus bellows with a Leitz Photar 25mm focal length macro lens (via another adapter). Illumination was by a twin arm fibre optic light, diffused through a shade made from a table tennis ball. The images were combined with Helicon Focus; the final image has not been processed further.
Since taking the first pictures, I have also been exchanging e-mails with Spike Walker about his StackShot set-up and comparing notes (surely this is one of the great pleasures of the Quekett, discussing and learning from others) and I have again modified my macro set-up to accommodate the benefit of a Leitz Aristophot transmitted light stage. This works much better than my initial system, although now I need to find or make stage inserts for the Aristophot stage as these are missing from my system (anyone got a spare set for sale?)
During the month I also enjoyed a week off work (sheer bliss!) and spent my days with a cement mixer laying brick paths in the vegetable garden (another overdue project). I finished late afternoon each day and then had a clear mind (and a tired body!) to catch up on some of those long-term microscopy projects. One of my main achievements was to finish off a tray of amber slides that needed cleaning, ringing and labelling. Surely there is nothing as satisfying as seeing a tray of slides that you have mounted yourself!
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I am now looking forward to March, and the proper start of the microscopists’ year, with the Cobham regional meeting, Reading Microscopical Society’s annual meeting, and the Club’s AGM.
Best regards
Phil Greaves
January 2011
As well as wishing everyone a Happy New Year, I must apologise for missing the December Blog. Several things conspired against me at the same time. The combination of newly acquired horse and freezing snow meant twice daily visits with hay and ice breaker for the horse trough, and I have suffered two computing problems. Firstly, the British Telecom modem decided to stop working and had to be replaced. The work laptop found the new wireless network easily, but my home desktop PC flatly refused to acknoweledge its existance. It is amazing how much time computers absorb when the don't work as they should.
The second issue is with PayPal. Without thinking, I tried to use PayPal whilst working for a week in Cuba, and had my account restricted (frozen) as Cuba is a high risk country (and no doubt due to the US trade embargo). Dealing with PayPal has been an endless round of requests for proof of identity and address (requiring a total of 7 bank statements, passport photocopies, utility bills etc. to be provided). Much time (and no doubt money) has been spent on the phone trying to resolve the issue with PayPal but still 2 months later the saga continues.
On a brighter note, spending 10 days at home over Christmas was bliss; I can only imaging this is how enjoyable retirement can be, but I have a long way to go (both in years and financially) before I can get there. I used the time to tackle a pet hate of mine; trailing electrical cables! It seems that microscopy now involves multiple devices each with its own electircal lead and plug. With computer, twin monitors, scanner, printer, stereo and compound microscopes, camera controls etc. I have a need for 14 sockets! So Christmas was spent rewiring sockets and cutting trailing leads to the required length. Like all DIY jobs, it took longer than anticipated, but the time was very well spent.
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I also completed the initial set-up of the StackShot macro rail. For those who missed earlier blogs, this is an automated system for stacking macrophotography and consists of a macro focus rail driven by an accurate stepper motor, and a controller that advances the focus rail, triggers the camera to take an image, advances the rail again etc for the desired number of 'steps'. Having assembled the system, it has been amazing how all the insects disappeared. The loftroom where I have the microscopes is usually a good source of overwintering flies but as soon as my thoughts turned to dipteran decapitation (for the photography of course!) there has not been a fly to be seen. I therefore had to use as my first trial subject a fairy shrimp immersed in glycerol which has proved problematic to illuminate without flare or 'ghosting' of the lightsource.
I will add some final pictures to the blog once I am happy with them. However, from current results, this may take some time!
Phil Greaves
November 2010
Whilst October was busy with Club events, November has also been a busy time.
Early in the month I attended the OPAL project (Open Air Laboratories – a Lottery-funded scheme running for 5 years to promote amateur and natural history societies’ participation in biodiversity) annual conference at the Natural History Museum. This was a superb event, and reinforced the role the Club has to play in developing microscopy skills with amateur naturalists, and the contribution we can make to the understanding of microscopic life. It was also encouraging to see so many enthusiastic people in their early 20’s attending.
A not-so-pleasant task was helping clear the microscopic effects of our member John Miles of Worthing. John had recently died and asked in his will that the Club helps sell his equipment to raise funds for the beneficiaries of his will. This is a service that I think is important that the Club provides – and it is always good to help people dispose of the chemicals that many of us accumulate or use. John’s equipment will join others in a Members Auction that I hope to have catalogued by the end of the year.
The month has ended with me enjoying another week of working in Cuba – a wonderful and fascinating island, and it is good to catch some sun before returning to the British winter. I am writing this blog from my hotel room, with the sound of the sea crashing ashore only 40 yards away, with a Cuban beer at the side of the laptop – life can be tough!. The long flights have also allowed me to catch up on some reading, and I saved the last issue of the Journal specifically for the trip. What a superb blend of articles were in the Journal, and all so well researched. I look forward to the next issue, and I have some articles in mind to contribute.
November also saw my birthday (21 again!) and I was finally able to open the StackShot macro rail system. Unfortunately I have not yet had time to assemble or test it due to the Cuba trip, but first impressions upon opening the box were very favourable. The main components of the system – the macro rail with stepper motor and control box – are very well-made and solidly engineered. All the connecting cables are provided, along with a CD instruction manual. There has been some criticism on some web-forums about the camera clamp screw, and the system can now be specified with an Arca quick-release plate. I opted to retain the screw as I hope to mount the specimen stage, and not the camera, to the StackShot rail, and hope I can make a more permanent (and secure) arrangement this way. Hopefully I will have more to report on the system in my next blog.
Finally, I have a new distraction from microscopy in my life. After a gap of some 25 years, I am back into horse ownership having recently bought an Irish Hunter called Jack Daniels (what a superb name – even though I prefer genuine Scotch!). For those who know of such things, he is 16.1 hands high and just under 6 years old. No doubt I will be able to link him to microscopy. Does anyone have a protocol for counting helminth worm eggs in horse droppings?
Click on images to see larger versions
Phil Greaves
October 2010
For me, October is the highlight of the ‘microscopical’ year with both the Annual Exhibition and the sales day, Microscopium.
For once, arrangements with the Natural History Museum for the Annual Exhibition went like clockwork (thanks Charles!) and I turned up at 7:00 AM on the Saturday morning ready to do my ‘assembly’ duties, only to find that the Friday team had nearly completed everything. It was strange wandering around the exhibition area on my own for over an hour, making minor adjustments to tablecloths, waiting for the event to commence.
We had a full range of exhibits and I am always encouraged by the diverse nature of members’ interests, and in awe of the ingenuity displayed by those who invent and fabricate apparatus to such high quality. The total number of visitors was down slightly, reflective of the costs and hassles of travelling into London, but we had over 120 members and guests through the doors, and the smaller numbers provided much better opportunities to chat with friends who I see only once or twice per year.
I was particularly pleased to meet Budd LaRue from California (Budd commented that he had last been to the Exhibition some 17 years ago – and how many faces from then were exhibiting this year!) and my dear friend Klaus-Peter John who visits us every year from Germany. Klaus very kindly gave me a recently published book on an exhibition of Moller slides held in Germany last year. Printed in German, it is going to stretch my long-distant O-Level German! Klaus also kindly sent me a CD of photographs of the Exhibition, together with this superb photo-montage. Thanks Klaus!
Click on image to see larger version
Microscopium is a very different event, requiring several nights of pricing up and loading of microscopical equipment into the Land Rover. This time I managed to navigate the roads of St. Albans successfully and arrived just before 9:00 AM to find the event almost in full-swing! Many of the items that I had for sale were from a dispersal of Dick Hamond’s estate, with Stephen Livermore selling the larger items. Together we raised several hundred pounds for Dick’s brother, and found grateful new homes for most items; I look forward to seeing these items at microscopical events around the country. Other items from Dick’s estate will be sold via Club auction so look out for the catalogue being issued later this year (once I have had chance to write it!).
For the last few years I have gone to Microscopium planning not to buy anything but have alwys found something of interest. This year it was a Wild photomicrographic system which I bought simply for the inter-connecting cable! At £10, surely a bargain for a system that probably cost well over £1,000 20 to 30 years ago. As ever, I now have a Wild photomicrographic system surplus to requirements, minus its cable!
With these two events out of the way, I can now return to projects at home. I have been watching the StackShot macro rail system for some time. Spike Walker first introduced me to it – the system automatically advances a macro rail at set intervals, and automatically triggers the camera shutter at each step, for use in image stacking. I have persuaded Mrs. Greaves to buy one for my birthday – it is now on the ‘high seas’ from America. I am now spending my time reading photonics catalogues to order the parts needed to integrate it onto my macro stand. Hopefully more of this next month once I have the system assembled.
It is surprising how relaxing a photonics catalogue can be when read in bed!
Phil Greaves
Webmaster's note - If you would like to see a StackShot macro rail visit the manufacturers website - Cognysis.inc
September 2010
The President's Blog - September 2010
My apologies to anyone who reads my blog for the absence of an entry for August; part of the month was spent on holiday in Australia where we enjoyed Kakadu National Park (near Darwin) in the ‘Top End’ as the Australians call the north. We then travelled south to Perth for time with my wife’s family. All good fun but no time or opportunity for microscopy. I did manage to take a pond net in the hope of finding some brine shrimps in the salt lakes and I brought back one preserved sample which contained some interesting crustaceans – not brine shrimps but with amazing leg growths which I assume can act as paddles. I am sure I have seen a photograph of these before but cannot locate it at present. Does anyone know more about these?
I came back from Australia and within 10 days of arriving home was off to India for work, from where I am currently writing. In between I did meet up with Brian Bracegirdle and his wife Pat at Hobbs in Southampton, who publish the Journal. This was fascinating visit; Hobbs make major investment each year in the latest equipment and have all stages of production in-house. A most impressive company and we are fortunate indeed to have the Journal printed by a company of this level of professionalism. The main reason behind my visit was to collect the main stock of Brian’s latest book, published by the Club; A History of Photography with the Light Microscope. The drive back from Hobbs with 400 copies of the book was ‘cautious’. I knew the Land Rover sagged slightly as the boxes were loaded but it was only when I arrived home and weighed one box that I realised I had driven with nearly half a tonne of books! It was good exercise moving these into storage.
I have taken my copy to India and it has been a constant companion during the 30 hours of air travel. The book is superb in its content and stunning in the use of illustrations. As the advertising men say: Now available via the Club Shop at discounted price to members and via Savona Books for non-members.
India has been interesting and also intensive. I have at last today (Saturday) had time to myself and travelled to the Botanic Gardens in Calcutta. According to the book these are the ‘second largest gardens in the world’ – I always seem to end up at the second or third largest of something, and never learn which is the largest. So I was pleased to see the world’s largest tree in terms of circumference, a Banyan Tree (Ficus). Although the main trunk has now gone, aerial roots and trunks now extend over a 3.5 acre area.
The gardens are easily on the scale of Kew or Kirstenboch in South Africa, but could politely be described as ‘naturalised’. The gardens contain a large number of ponds and lakes which must have been of great interest to the Victorian and Edwardian naturalists who visited or worked in the area. Indeed, there are many publications of the period describing microscopic life in India. But as I looked out at what I can only describe as a pond-dipper’s paradise, I wondered what rotifers, cladocera, gastrotrics, desmids, diatoms wait to be discovered. I have my sample (I take a simple sampling kit based on a plastic turkey-baster wherever I go) and look forward to getting home late tomorrow to get it under the microscope.
Phil Greaves
THE PRESIDENT’S BLOG – JULY 2010
Both June and July have been busy months! We finished June and entered July at the Royal Microscopical Society’s MicroScience conference and exhibition in London, where Graham Matthews and I manned the Club stand for three days, supported by a healthy number of different Club volunteers each day.
The exhibition was superb, with the latest imaging systems (‘microscope’ now sounds too simple a word to describe the integration of optics and electronics) and a bewildering array of techniques demonstrated. Despite all this modern technology, and the cost of it all, it was rewarding to see how many professional microscopists stopped dead in their tracks at the quality of images taken and displayed by Club members on the Quekett’s stand. We met some interesting people, signed up some new members, and made significant progress in increasing the Club’s profile in the microscopy community. And we had some fun at the Argentinian bar in the evening!
Soon after this we held an open afternoon at the Natural History Museum for scientific and volunteer staff. This again required a lot of preparation of posters and display material, and was very well supported on the day with members’ Gossip exhibits. I was unfortunately unable to attend due to another business trip, but the reports back are full of enthusiasm for this event.
During the month I also had the opportunity to call in on Spike Walker – and his partner Chris – whilst en route for work along the M6. It is always a delight to see Spike. His robust sense of humour matches mine and I always come away with an aching jaw from the laughter. Seeing Spike’s work and his latest projects is always an inspiration and II both get enthused about photographic possibilities, and learn more each time about how to achieve them.
This time Spike introduced me to an automated macro rail with stepping motor to advance the camera for ‘focus stack’ macrophotography. Made by StackShot, this system seems to have great possibilities and I hope Spike will write a review for the Club on his experiences with the system. Finally seeing the amount of (Zeiss) equipment Spike has (see the picture) always makes me feel better about my own ‘magpie’ habits!
We’re off on holiday soon to see relatives in Perth, Australia and have an ‘outback’ trip by four wheel drive from Darwin for a few days. I am currently enjoying putting together a small pond sampling kit for the journey (the only holiday preparation I have made so far!). Whilst Darwin will be hot and dry, Perth will be at the end of a rainy winter so I hope to find and examine some of the fairy shrimps (Branchiopod crustaceans) that inhabit the salt lakes and temporary waters of the area. I shall report back at the end of August. I hope you enjoy your summer!
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Phil Greaves
June 2010
A very big welcome to our new website! Many months of planning and work have gone into making this happen. The new website ‘breaks away’ from the Natural History Museum’s server, which has served us so well to date; our new server provides greater flexibility and quicker updates. Hopefully you will find the new ‘architecture’ of the website much easier to follow, and our new searchable index will help you find that essential archived article.
The success of the new website depends on you. Visit the website frequently, and you will be entertained with new material on a regular basis. Why not send a short article, or some photographs of your work. If you have a question, or a comment, please use the Forum. Finally, the website will continue to evolve – nothing in ‘cyberspace’ is static for long! Tell us what you like about the website, and perhaps what does not work so well. What else would you like to see?
It has been a busy time for the Club. In addition to the new website, we have been preparing for the Royal Microscopical Society’s MicroScience exhibition at the ExCel centre in London, 29 June to 01 July. The RMS has generously provided a stand for the Club, for free. Much work has gone into preparing for the exhibition, designing and printing new brochures, posters and exhibition stands. We hope to attract some new members to the Club through this route; if you are visiting the Exhibition please do call in and see the Club’s stand.
We have also earlier in June supported the Natural History Museum’s open day at the Wildlife Garden in London where we mounted a ‘Young Scientists’ day with pond dipping and use of the Angela Marmot’s Biodiversity Centre’s microscopes. The day was very busy with both adults and children – we nearly had to push out interested groups at the end of the day! Our next activity that we are preparing for is an open day for scientists and volunteers at the Museum, to illustrate the work of the Club and our members. Busy times, but promoting the Club and attracting new members is vital to the Club’s ongoing success.
I have today commenced a new project (another one!). Whilst I understand there are some members who are not excited by freshwater life under the microscope, as a biologist I have always enjoyed a ‘pond dip’ and I suspect many microscopists have a pond at home for that very purpose. Unfortunately for me, a pond has never really fitted into my garden planting schemes. However, yesterday whilst visiting our local agricultural merchants, I was attracted to a small (new) galvanised cattle water trough. It fitted into the back of the Land Rover (just!) and today has been set up as my microscopists’ pond with a couple of pond lilies (yes, it has to look attractive as well!) and a bucket of water and weed from a local pond. I look forward to reporting on what develops.
Phil Greaves