Overview

The Microscopy laboratory is used by shipboard paleontologists to identify microfossils for dating the sediments, by sedimentologists to check grain sizes and more and by igneous petrologists/alteration and structure geologists to classify rocks. We also carry a fluorescent microscope for microbiological sample analysis.

Instruments

Four Zeiss Stereo binocular microscopes, with manual 8:1 zoom and either reflected or transmitted light viewing
One Zeiss Axioplan microscope equipped for simultaneous transmitted and reflected polarized light viewing, with a large variety of objectives
Two Zeiss Axioskop A1 microscopes equipped for simultaneous transmitted and reflected polarized light viewing, with a large variety of objectives
One Zeiss Axiophot microscope equipped for DIC, phase contrast, and fluorescence studies and for cross-polarized light, plane-transmitted light, and darkfield illumination
On Zeiss Imager 2 fluorescent microscope and one Zeiss Imager 2 with DIC capability
Most microscopes are equipped with SPOT cameras for digital microphotography,
The MBIO epifluorescence microscope has a Zeiss camera attached that works with the Zen blue software
PICAT to photograph full thin section images in plane- and cross-polarized light (Please ask a technician to take those for you, if they were not automatically produced when you received the thin section.)
Please note that proprietary manuals are available upon request and subject to limited use