The worlds smallest mirror

[sjastro]

Not sure if this qualifies as a "terrestrial" image.

It's the reflection of a stereo microscope and a cathedral ceiling on the surface of a pinhead.
The pinhead is around 1.5 mm in diameter.

Photography through a microscope presents a whole new set of challenges.
The main problem is depth of field.

To get sharp focus across the surface of the pinhead I took two images of the pinhead, one focused on the middle of the pinhead, the other on its edge.
The images were then stacked in Zerene Stacker and processed in Photoshop.

Clearly the surface is riddled with optical aberrations.

Regards

Steven

[Larryp (Laurie)]

Fascinating photo, Steven!

[CDKPhil]

Extreme macro,

What a great image!

who ever made the pin didn't do a great job of polishing it. I don't think I would by this brand.

cheers
Phil

[sjastro]

Thanks Larry and Phil.

Maybe the next step is to use the pinhead as an all sky camera.

Regards

Steven

[bartman (Bart)]

Awesome Idea!
+1 for thinking outside the box!
What made you come up with the idea?
Cheers
Bartman

[sjastro]

Thanks Bart.

I saw an image of a bacterial culture being grown on pinhead, it made me think it was possible to resolve a reflected image on a pinhead by playing around with the lighting conditions.

Regards

Steven

[bojan]

Actually, pinhead (well polished of course) was used to create point-like light source, using bulbs..
Those could be used as artificial stars to test mirrors, in Foucault test for example.