Jan 9, 2011: Closer Look at Snow

Magnified, snow sometimes looks like a caricature of itself, or what snow might look like in a Tim Burton movie...but sometimes it doesn't look like itself at all.



More pictures here.

YIKES!
Please Mods...Fix the date. Thanks.

It looks like snow that's been hanging around the gutter for a few days, all dingy and shit. :haha:


Thanks, ME, Pico should be proud.

Punk snow.

Nice pics.

Very cool photos at that link. Some of 'em look like toys that got left scattered over a playroom floor. Y'all should check out the photos of cocktails under a microscrope that are also featured at that same website. Psychadelic!

:beer:

http://www.laboiteverte.fr/des-cocktails-au-microscope/

We visited similar photos several years ago...
http://www.cellar.org/showpost.php?p=126513

From here:
http://www.microscopy.fsu.edu/galleria/index.html

Gorgeous. But I have spent the weekend trying NOT to get a closer look at the snow here. As in not getting down to pavement level.

I likes the snow.

Snow for my birthday. (yeah, it's today)

I may have mentioned before that I get snow every year for my birthday, well, +/-3 days, which means that I got some at -3, -1, and today, Cellar Snow. Looks good for +3 as well.

Great pics!

I saw this thread yesterday, just as the snow was starting, and sent the images to my colleagues, so we were inspired to have a go.

I didn't collect the snow and helped with getting the settings right for good pictures.

The first one is fromt he start of the storm when the flakes felt small and icy, the last two are from today when they were big and fluffy.

Awesome!

How much does a scanning electron microscope cost? I want one.

So, those post/column-like things hold two 'snowflake' crystals together, I suppose.

Pico and ME;705219 wrote:

So, those post/column-like things hold two 'snowflake' crystals together, I suppose.

I dunno, I don't make 'em.
I was surprised as there are some very simialr in the OP, especially the linked pictures, even the slit down the side.

you can get Little desktop SEM's now, I think they are about $80K.

If you know how to maintain them they often give the old ones away, I knew a guy who had one in his garage.

Down memory lane... As a student I created mnemonic devises to help understand some things.

One I remember now, 50+ yrs later, about EM images is:
"a hole creates a shadow of brightness"

Is this field still doing the "gold" or other metal evaporations to make biological specimens visible with the EM ?
It was a tedious process, often ending in failure.

Those are cool. That first one looks like one of those bank containers you use at the drive up window.

Beest;705230 wrote:

you can get Little desktop SEM's now, I think they are about $80K.

Um... no. :headshake

Thanks for the pictures, Beest, we like to keep those French honest. :haha:

Beest; How can you do this with an EM, doesn't the flake melt instantly?

SPUCK;705346 wrote:

Beest; How can you do this with an EM, doesn't the flake melt instantly?

You chill the stage that the flake sits on, we have lot's of liquid nitrogen handy, and once it's in the EM it is in a vacuum so no heating by the air around it. The beam current is very low, pico amps, so nano Watts of heating power, not enough to melt them

I should think a vacuum would make it change state very quickly.

Beest;705230 wrote:

If you know how to maintain them they often give the old ones away, I knew a guy who had one in his garage.

My dad (Physics prof at a small college) used to get tons of old equipment from Bell Labs this way.

Thanks Beest. I thought the beam currents were way higher. Prolly new sensors need way less.