The 2001 Autumn Meeting of the QMC/PMS at the Purbecks Dorset.

Report by Brian Darnton - pictures by Tony Saunders-Davies

On a fine Autumn day there can be few more beautiful places in England to visit than the Ilse of Purbeck in Dorset. Once Again the Purbeck Dorset meeting was well attended. Local members were joined by enthusiasts from as far afield as Guildford, Portsmouth and Reading.

Dick Speight made a display of Watson stands including the incredible van Heurk, the Kima, and a Service No.3. Sam Christofi admires the display.

Tony Saunders Davies. Gave us a demonstration of his Olympus C920Z digital camera adapted for high speed photography through the microscope. He used a fibre optic guide to carry the output of the flash gun to the stage. (Ed: I have been invited to write this up for the next Bulletin - 41) Tony also used a New and impressive white LED of very high intensity, which he had purchased from the United States.

Fred Loxton and Charlotte Wheatley Gave a display of surviving antique dry mounted seeds, two of which are shown above. They also demonstrated a very useful acquisition from B & Q in the form of a very versatile low voltage quartz lamp.

Klaus Kemp`s mounted Diatoms, Butterfly scales and other incredible achievements were as usual a great source of interest. He also demonstrated the Swift and McArthur portable microscopes a well as his computer data-base with more than 1500 images and related data on Diatoms.

Ken and Betty Jones brought a large range of optical accessories and maintained an exhibition of continuous footage of very sharp images of fresh water creatures.

.Derek Stevens. who organised the meeting this year displayed images taken through a Logitech web cam camera, with the lens removed. He shared some of the problems involved in this quite low resolution system. He also showed live samples from his pond on a cam recorder. These included a very obliging Amoeba, which during the day managed to perform every physiological function that an Amoeba is supposed to exhibit.

Joan Bingley demonstrated hairs in different media while Mike Bingley extolled the virtues of an acquired East German stand of incredible quality. Mr.G.D Griffin brought along a hybrid inverted microscope stand which he had constructed himself from parts manufactured by several well known firms. The instrument displayed diatoms of continental origin in superb dark field illumination. Mr S Christofi treated us to a very fruitful collection of desmids collected during the recent QMC/Micscape trip to Holland. The great diversity of organisms was still very much alive under his Wild M40 Microscope from Switzerland. Mike Woof had a cleverly illuminated stage involving 4 white LED's arranged around a small petrie dish holding FW algae. Above the stage were two more adjustable LED's balanced by a rheostat.

Brian Darnton. Showed the latest developments to his marine museum which included the addition of Bryozoans, linked to the illustration in Micrographia. Here he demonstrates some of his slides to Mike Woof.

Alan Hepworth introduced us to a new inexpensive book of mosses that contained colour photography of a very high standard. Although it was printed in N Zealand it also covered the European moss flora. We were visited by several local people as well as many visiting members who contributed valuable comments. During the course of the day refreshments were supplied by Rosemary Stevens and Margriet Darnton. The fine Autumn weather contributed to a very enjoyable and varied day out in the Purbecks.