THE 2005 ANNUAL EXHIBITION
(pictures by Tony Saunders-Davies)
"The place is buzzing" said my wife of the Annual Exhibition. And an hour after it opened so it was. Although looking a little bit empty (above) it soon filled up. "And the exhibits are so well researched and presented" she added after going round the stands. It was nice to hear that from a layperson, and with visitors from as far afield as Germany and America it was a great success.
A full report of all the Exhibits will appear in the next Bulletin, but here are a few that caught my eye:
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Brian Darnton is the Club expert on foraminifera, and his demonstrations of mounting and handling these little organisms (or rather their fossils) are always popular. |
| Norman Chapman is well-known for his interest in bees and pollen. Here he talks to a couple of visitors about his exhibit. |  |
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A feature of the Millenium Exhibition was a 'Timeline' of the Club; this idea was echoed in the '05'Exhibition, but this time the theme was 'Watson Microscopes', one of the famous names in microscopy. The exhibits ranged from 19th Century to late 20th Century. |
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A regular feature of the yearly Exhibition is Brian Davidson's display. Here he showed a variety of illumination techniques, with various microscopes. Two micrographs of what could be seen are shown below: |
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On the left is a picture of sponge spicules, shown under Rheinberg Illumination.
Neither the background or the objects themselves are coloured, but the colours
are introduced by a modified form of Dark Ground Illumination. There is
a description of this technique in the Resources section. The insect on
the right is taken under polarised light, with, I think, a wave plate. This
shows up the striped muscles particularly well.
Gwyneth Thurwood specialises in photographing crystals under polarised light, and then producing paintings from the results. She recently published an article in the Bulletin, and we have included some of her micrographs in our Resources section.
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Above left: The President, Maurice Moss, demonstrates his exhibit to a guest; while (right) Phil Greaves chats to Pam Hamer. Ms Hamer, a forensic scientist, is the Committee's nomination for the next President.
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No exhibition would be complete without one of Tony Dutton's displays. Here he stands by a presentation on the conoscopic effect (the diffraction pattern of the specimen, shown in the rear focal plane of the objective.) |
Finally a picture of a splendid arranged slide of sponge spicules and diatoms
Above from Brian Davidson's exhibit.
There was lots more to see, but my time was limited. However I hope this gives some idea of the varied exhibits and excellent organisation of the show.