Epi-illumination is where light shines onto the object rather than through it (trans-illumination) & is useful for looking at solid objects through the microscope. One way to achieve epi-illumination is by a system that projects light through the objective onto the object – a difficult thing to achieve and usually requiring a good quality lab microscope. First success today with this on my Zeiss IM microscope.
Can you work out what the following object is?
32x objective = ca. 320x magnification:
Pictures above show the object has radial marks from a circular structure on the left and second picture shows irregular dents in the structure. Are these features related or unrelated to each other?
x20 objective = x200 magnification:
Regular linear markings appear in the first picture at this lower magnification, giving a tile-like appearance to the object. However, photograph 2 shows a hill-like structure.
x4 objective = 40x magnification:
This picture reveals that the hills come in fours (see top left) and form part of a fort-like outline. What could cause this?
The culprit is shown below……
A Malaysian coin.
The microscopic images are of a small cross at top of the central peak on the crown.