THE ANNUAL EXHIBITION 2004
This took place in the Palaeontology Rooms at the Natural History Museum on October 4th 2004. It was something of a relief to return to these rooms after using the Platt Theatre while refurbishment was in progress.
The President - Dr Maurice Moss - welcomed visitors and exhibitors and declared the Exhibition open:
There was quite a crowd as visitors and Members of the Museum queued to get in:
I was running a workshop on Digital Photomicroscopy as well as acting as Web reporter, so I found it difficult to get round to every exhibit - there was so much of interest to see!
| This young visitor showed and interest in my Workshop exhibit on digital photomicroscopy. I attached a Nikon 990 digital camera to my Russian portable, and fed the output to a small TV. Later I was able to download an image onto a laptop, and show how detail, contrast and colour could be improved in software. |  |
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Tony Jarratt exhibited material from samples taken in September from the Basingstoke Canal, via a video camera and a small TV. He included a nice cyclops, but told me that none of the rotifers had survived. |
| Maurice Moss, seen here explaining his exhibit to a visitor, showed butterfly scales in a dramatic demonstration of the difference in appearance under transmitted light (shown below left) and top light (below right) |  |
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Malcolm Thain, seen above right, adjusting his little Swift portable, showed carpet beetles and their hairs, which showed up well under the little Swift, above left.
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Fred Price in a colourful exhibit, had a number of crystals of various compounds to be seen under polarised light. |
Perhaps the most original exhibit was that of Tony Dutton, seen on the right
here with Bill Boorn, who showed an old 78rmp record (you can see it under
the video camera) whose grooves were illuminated by two different colour
monochromatic LEDs. As a matter of interest the record was of Caruso in
the final duet from Aida!
Tony is always one of the most innovative of microscopists, but I don't
think I have ever seen anything as unusual as this before.
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Phil Greaves showed some of the slides he had recently unearthed of one 'W.Burton' who had been a member of the Club since 1889. The pictures above is of two shots of the same slide 'Hair of a Caterpillar'. On the left is the whole 'body' with hairs growing from it, while the right-hand shot shows the termination of the hairs - rather dramatic under Dark Ground Illumination.
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Barry Ellam, as usual, had an exhibit that was beautifully presented. He had a variety of stands including a nice Victorian period Stephenson. |
| His exhibit was wittily entitled - 'A Slice of Life', and this slide was a section through a human scalp! |  |
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Brian Davidson, left, poses with Bryan Tabor in front of Brian's exhibit, entitled 'Fossils in Flint' including a sponge spicule, above. |
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Finally exhibitors in small groups were able to make a guided tour of the Museum's Herbarium. Unfortunately I was unable to find the time, but it looks a thoroughly interesting visit. Photograph courtesy of Colin Kirk. |
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And so another fine Annual Exhibition of Microscopy is over. Thanks to Phil Greaves and others for the faultless organisatio.
My apologies to those who presented interesting exhibits that I was unable to visit.
Tony Saunders-Davies