Tricky glare

The name Chalcanthite is derived from the Greek, chalkos and anthos, which means copper flower, it is a richly colored blue / green water-soluble sulphate mineral CuSO4 · 5H2O. It is often found in the late-stage oxidation zones of copper deposits. Chalcanthite dissolves easily in water, just like ordinary copper sulfate that is available on the market. Because of this property, Chalcanthite is more common in arid regions. The crystals photographed here are from Bulgaria.

Photographing crystals under the microscope is difficult because of the brilliance of the crystals. The glare creates overexposed spots in the photo. The way of illumination is therefore crucial here. Reference is made to a recent useful publication on this subject on the Motic Europe Blog. In the present case, indirect illumination is used as shown in the photo below. Here a flexible glass fiber LED lamp in combination with a simple paper ‘screen’ has been used. 

The new cameras like the Moticam ProS5 Plus and Moticam ProS5 Lite give good results under these conditions.

Moticam Pro S5 Lite | Moticam Pro S5 Plus

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