Diatom

Thank you all for the many kind words.

Lucky ... No, I don't add any dyes or stains. The Methyl Cellulose is used mainly to slow down the swimmers but it spreads things out by simply adding more fluid to the mix. An extra drop of water would do the same thing; just stir the sample around (a wooden toothpick work fine) to give everything a wider distribution before you put on a cover glass.

I start with a drop of sample water, one that does not contain a great deal of visible stuff. Fight the impulse to load up the slide to get as many critters under the lens as possible. I then dilute it with an equal amount of methyl cellulose which separates the objects even more, and also serves to slow down, or stop, the more active organisms. After taking an image I load it into Photoshop Elements and clean off everything that is not touching the subject.

I use a Leica CME microscope fitted with a Motic 10MP microscope camera.

The arrangement of chloroplasts and the slight pinching in the mid-section can easily give the impression that this diatom is dividing, but that is its natural appearance. Nice observation though.