Common material uncommonly pretty

CoreheadCorehead Registered Users Posts: 210 Major grins
edited December 26, 2008 in Other Cool Shots
Most of you are familiar with a building material called "drywall", which is hydrated calcium sulfate bonded with other stuff. This material is frequently encountered while drilling core samples at oil well exploration sites--but in an anhydrous form called (conveniently enough) "anhydrite".

If a core sample containing anhydrite is preserved in water for long enough, some of the anhydrite dissolves, to later form needle-shaped crystals of hydrated calcium sulfate, which is quite lovely when viewed under polarizing light at 125X with the Zeiss petrographic microscope I have access to.

It was tricky capturing this image with my beat-up old Canon A540 but, with a setting of f8 (aperture priority) and equivalent speed of ISO 400 (DIN 27)...and with a whole lot of unsharp masking and despeckling, here's the result. Be patient with me: I'm a work in progress!

Comments

  • angevin1angevin1 Registered Users Posts: 3,403 Major grins
    edited December 23, 2008
    Terrrrriffic ART!

    Cheers, tom
    tom wise
  • CoreheadCorehead Registered Users Posts: 210 Major grins
    edited December 23, 2008
    Why, Fielen dank!
    angevin1 wrote:
    Terrrrriffic ART!

    Cheers, tom
  • SkippySkippy Registered Users Posts: 12,075 Major grins
    edited December 26, 2008
    Corehead wrote:
    Most of you are familiar with a building material called "drywall", which is hydrated calcium sulfate bonded with other stuff. This material is frequently encountered while drilling core samples at oil well exploration sites--but in an anhydrous form called (conveniently enough) "anhydrite".

    If a core sample containing anhydrite is preserved in water for long enough, some of the anhydrite dissolves, to later form needle-shaped crystals of hydrated calcium sulfate, which is quite lovely when viewed under polarising light at 125X with the Zeiss petrographic microscope I have access to.

    It was tricky capturing this image with my beat-up old Canon A540 but, with a setting of f8 (aperture priority) and equivalent speed of ISO 400 (DIN 27)...and with a whole lot of unsharp masking and despeckling, here's the result. Be patient with me: I'm a work in progress!

    Looks like it should be jewellery doesn't it nod.gif
    the light makes it appear to be opalized, turned out pretty darn good thumb.gif
    .... Skippy :D
    .

    .
    .
    Skippy (Australia) - Moderator of "HOLY MACRO" and "OTHER COOL SHOTS"

    ALBUM http://ozzieskip.smugmug.com/

    :skippy Everyone has the right to be stupid, but some people just abuse the privilege :dgrin
  • CoreheadCorehead Registered Users Posts: 210 Major grins
    edited December 26, 2008
    Thank ya, Ma'am! And, how's your summer shaping up? Another dry one this year?
    Skippy wrote:
    Looks like it should be jewellery doesn't it nod.gif
    the light makes it appear to be opalized, turned out pretty darn good thumb.gif
    .... Skippy :D
    .

    .
  • redleashredleash Registered Users Posts: 3,840 Major grins
    edited December 26, 2008
    Nice capture! I never knew that oil exploration could be so colorful! rolleyes1.gif
    "But ask the animals, and they will teach you." (Job 12:7)

    Lauren Blackwell
    www.redleashphoto.com
  • CoreheadCorehead Registered Users Posts: 210 Major grins
    edited December 26, 2008
    It can get pretty SMELLY, too! :uhoh
    redleash wrote:
    Nice capture! I never knew that oil exploration could be so colorful! rolleyes1.gif
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