Although sunny today, it's quite cold and well below freezing so it's a good day to avoid chores and to get some time in behind the camera.

This is a focus-stacked image of the mandibles of a black carpenter ant. It's my go-to session when I change up my rig for higher magnification sessions so that I can compare the new arrangement to those in the past which allows me to evaluate it.

I've attached an image of the staging of the specimen before the camera and an image that shows the configuration of the rig used to produce the image of the mandibles.

The optics used is a 10X power PLAN achromatic infinity microscope objective. Because infinity microscope objectives require a "tube lens" to function properly, I use a Raynox DCR-150 mounted in reversed configuration. The Raynox has a focal length of 208mm to focus to infinity so it must be extended and I do so with a bellows and a short section of an extension tube. I also use a short section of an extension tube so that the microscope objective does not mate against the glass of the Raynox.

The microscope objective has a bright chrome finish so I wrap it with crushed velvet so that the front of it does not reflect onto the subject. I use the vellum tracing paper "light tunnel" and two IKEA LED desk lamps to illuminate the subject (not shown) and the image of the staging shows the working distance between the tip of the objective and the mounted specimen.

The total camera travel for this session was 0.784mm in which 198 images were taken. The stack of images was processed in Zerene Stacker to produce the image of the mandibles.

Although sunny today, it's quite cold and well below freezing so it's a good day to avoid chores and to get some time in behind the camera.

This is a focus-stacked image of the mandibles of a black carpenter ant. It's my go-to session when I change up my rig for higher magnification sessions so that I can compare the new arrangement to those in the past which allows me to evaluate it.

I've attached an image of the staging of the specimen before the camera and an image that shows the configuration of the rig used to produce the image of the mandibles.

The optics used is a 10X power PLAN achromatic infinity microscope objective. Because infinity microscope objectives require a "tube lens" to function properly, I use a Raynox DCR-150 mounted in reversed configuration. The Raynox has a focal length of 208mm to focus to infinity so it must be extended and I do so with a bellows and a short section of an extension tube. I also use a short section of an extension tube so that the microscope objective does not mate against the glass of the Raynox.

The microscope objective has a bright chrome finish so I wrap it with crushed velvet so that the front of it does not reflect onto the subject. I use the vellum tracing paper "light tunnel" and two IKEA LED desk lamps to illuminate the subject (not shown) and the image of the staging shows the working distance between the tip of the objective and the mounted specimen.

The total camera travel for this session was 0.784mm in which 198 images were taken. The stack of images was processed in Zerene Stacker to produce the image of the mandibles.