Propping up a dodgy memory

This evening I took delivery of a new microscope. A proper microscope. Coming soon a 10 MP camera, and depending on results this may be followed by some extra lighting and optics. But hang on, I hear you say, don't you already have a microscope and camera? What have you beeen using all this time to take pretty rock picktures? Witchcraft and old copies of Hansard?

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Charoite--like pietersite--is another lovely chatoyant rock that is sadly hydrophobic. I know, I say that all the time, but this time I really mean it. I already had a contact sheet of images I was quite happy with, but I couldn't resist having a bit of a play to see if I can get a bit more focus here and there out of my new glass slide covers.

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Really starting to feel the rollercoaster side effects of using amitriptyline as pain relief. Yesterday got hit by depression (as anticipated - I was actually pleased it held off as long as it did) and then had a sleepless night last night/this morning with gradually increasing all-over jitters. Pain isn't a problem though so I hope to work out those jitters with a bit of a walk, always assuming I survive the strenuous business of showering and dressing. But by way of compensation I was rewarded with another gorgeous sunrise. Didn't catch this one early, but still got the business end and some very nice shots of both colour and form. And powerlines. I might start giving them names.

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Received the Plumage poster in the mail today. After getting the first round of 30 x 40cm ones back I made this one lighter and was sufficiently hopeful that I ordered the bigger print at 50 x 75cm. The good news is the colours came out really bright, so that worked well.

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Lake Bonneville is in Idaho, and sports some rather lovely moss agate.

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I'm sure local twitchers will have no trouble in identifying this little bird for me. I see a lot of them in my garden and they really seem to enjoy the thickets that I cultivate^ for their protection. I'd say this is a bug eater by the look of that beak, but I could be wrong (brain not really in a bird-identifying space right now).

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Managed to get a single clear shot of a black spider outside Sector 7 this afternoon. Hoping to get a closer more focused shot I tried getting creative with my little tripod by bracing it against the ceiling and shooting upside down, but I must have frightened my subject off by my efforts. This is what I got:

( Arachnophobes beware )

Haven't really felt up to playing with either rocks or rock pictures, but I wanted to have a try at merging two shots with different depth of focus to create a single image with the maximum amount possible in focus. i.e. overcome the greatest weakness of both my camera and microscope shots, which is very shallow depth of focus.

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I haven't encountered Pentagonite before, possibly because decent specimens appear to be wildly out of my price range. But on spec I was browsing for micro minerals on ebay and came across this little beauty: ROYAL BLUE PENTAGONITE ON MICRO HEULANDITE MATRIX. Apologies for the shouting but rock dealers tend to wax enthusiastic about their products. I'm not sure if that ebay link will survive forever.

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It's easy to take silver for granted; it's everywhere, we've all got some in a drawer somewhere. But in the wild, native silver grows in amazing curly wires, and today I took receipt of a small bundle of steel silver wool. But wait, there's more! As a bonus my dealer also gave me some lab-grown silver crystals. Fans of bismuth will like these.

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