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?

Andy

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……

x1 magnification:

A Malaysian coin.

The microscopic images are of a small cross at top of the central peak on the crown.