pleecan Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 (edited) Well it happen this morning trying to photograph a fossil... could not figure out why the image was deteriorating going out of focus.... I had connected a new fiber optic twin goose neck metal flex light pipe for illumination (Cheap light source) for microscope.... did not realize that the light source did not filter out infrared and conducted the infrared via inner metal conduit that surrounded fiber optic glass strands ... the amber was touching the end of the fiber optic pipe.... bad news.... the amber was very hot to the touch well it semi warped the NJ cretaceous amber with a parasitic wasp... all I now see is a field of tiny air bubbles .. I may have melted the amber resulting in plastic flow and air bubbles with the light source. Before This is a shot taken a few days ago: Illuminated with cold light source... After Now the wrecked fossil looks like this pooh: I probably would have been okay if the metal casing of the inner fiber optic did not contact the amber fossil. At least I still have pics of what the fossil did look like. A freak accident.... learned a lesson today. PL Edited February 26, 2010 by pleecan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Owens Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 Man, sorry 'bout your specimen. Do you think polishing the Amber might help you see it better? Hope you can save it. -----"Your Texas Connection!"------ Fossils: Windows to the past Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 Oh, man, that's bitter I feel for you, PL. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted February 26, 2010 Author Share Posted February 26, 2010 Thanks guys... I never expected this.... got blind sided. I have put the fossil away for now... I will probably try to salvage by repolish it some day.... a bitter lesson. Time to move on... got an unknown which I will be posting shortly. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 Fiber optic can transmit an incredible amount of heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted February 26, 2010 Author Share Posted February 26, 2010 Yes Mike tremendous amount of heat... heat stressing could even damage fragile fossils ie crack. PL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lordpiney Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 thats a real shame! im going to go amber hunting next month where your specimen came from. if i find anything bug wise, i'll offer it to you first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted February 26, 2010 Author Share Posted February 26, 2010 thats a real shame! im going to go amber hunting next month where your specimen came from. if i find anything bug wise, i'll offer it to you first. Thank You! Regards, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoenixflood Posted February 27, 2010 Share Posted February 27, 2010 That is a shame Sorry to hear about it. The soul of a Fossil Hunter is one that is seeking, always. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted February 28, 2010 Author Share Posted February 28, 2010 That is a shame Sorry to hear about it. Thanks for the reply.... The intial shock has pasted...I posted this experience so others are aware of this potential hazard with something as simple as a light source when misapplied can destroy a fragile fossil... in this case ... amber. I hope by posting that others will be aware of potential pitfall and averted the same happenings. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erose Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 What type of bulb did your light source use? You can now get LED lamps that fit into standard sockets like MR16s. The color will be different but they will not transmit nearly as much heat. Some of those old light sources also had a place to insert a heat filter. That was a piece of glass set at a 45 degree angle and coated with a film(?) that reflected the IR away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted February 28, 2010 Author Share Posted February 28, 2010 What type of bulb did your light source use? You can now get LED lamps that fit into standard sockets like MR16s. The color will be different but they will not transmit nearly as much heat. Some of those old light sources also had a place to insert a heat filter. That was a piece of glass set at a 45 degree angle and coated with a film(?) that reflected the IR away. Erose: Thanks for the suggestion with regards to the MR16... I believe the LED has better color balance an output close to 6000K color temp white light with very little IR (but low output lux intensity ) where as the halogen is more like 5000K color temp output with tremendous IR but high Lux intensity) ... I will probably live with the halogen source... just have an increase awareness of the tremendous heat generation... making sure that the fiber optic light pipe does not physically contact the specimen. I have several other lighting sources available that generates almost no heat... just that day I got adventurous and tried a light source that I had less familiarity with... I believe it is some sort of halogen bulb with integrated reflector assembly similar to 35mm slide projector type sources... I do have LED lamps and 6000K fluorescent light sources which I currently use. Some day I may build myself 12v Xenon HID from car lamp assembly... thanks for your reply. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taxman56 Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 Thanks for the info. I never thought of light/heat source ruining a great specimen. I bought a lot from that guy off ebay who appears to have mined almost all the amber out of sayerville. I still haven't gone through it but I expect he cherry picked anything before he sold it on ebay since he does sell single insect pieces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taxman56 Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 Also be carefully with that automotive Xenon bulb. I bought a few of those hi-intensity flash lights that use a similar bulb and A123 batteries. They warn you not to use it continuously for 10 minutes at a time and let it cool down and not touch the glass lens. I burned a hole through the nylon holder when I accidentally turned it on once. Luckily I didn't catch anything on fire in the car. But the smell of plastic melting made me nervous while I looked for the source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted February 28, 2010 Author Share Posted February 28, 2010 Thanks Taxman for the information /warning. The Xenon -Halogen bulbs are hot filament based bulbs and are different from HID = high intensity discharge light which requires special gas filled bulbs with high voltage +1000Volts circuits to ignite/generate a gas plasma... resulting in third to 50% drop in power consumption but has 3x the illumination power ... yes these bulbs do heat up ... that is why one would need a cooling fan much like a projector. PL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erose Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 Erose: Thanks for the suggestion with regards to the MR16... I believe it is some sort of halogen bulb with integrated reflector assembly similar to 35mm slide projector type sources... FYI Those old slide projector bulbs usually ARE MR16s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted March 1, 2010 Author Share Posted March 1, 2010 FYI Those old slide projector bulbs usually ARE MR16s. Thank You for the information! Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted March 5, 2010 Author Share Posted March 5, 2010 I forgot one thing in my intial posts... regards to origins of the Parasitic Wasp fosssil To give credit where credit is due.... I want to add that the beautiful NJ Parasitic Wasp cretaceous amber fossil was collected by our forum member usaman65 .... Kevin.... a budding palaeo guy.... on his way to become an expert in amber fossils. Sorry for accidentally destroying the amber fossil Kev. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted March 14, 2010 Author Share Posted March 14, 2010 Well it has been a little over 2 weeks since the accident so I revisited the amber fossil to salvage what I can... but to my amazement the entire amber looked like sponge toffee and had fallen apart.... this is a sad image of a amber fossil that was cooked under a hot light source ie fiber optic light pipe that did not have good IR filtering.... so call cold light cooked the fossil.... I am amazed by the amount of thermal heat energy that can be transmitted by fiber optics.... kind of reminds me of cooked mica that explodes at high temperatures ... like popcorn.... PL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usaman65 Posted March 15, 2010 Share Posted March 15, 2010 Wow! thats interesting! PM me and ill send you some other pieces to make up for the loss. Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted March 16, 2010 Author Share Posted March 16, 2010 Thank you Kev (usaman65) (The Amber Man) for your super generosity! Best Regards, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleecan Posted March 19, 2010 Author Share Posted March 19, 2010 Well a care package arrived today from Kevin C.(usaman65) with my replacement NJ amber + other goodies ... amber from Sarawak Malaysia. The NJ Amber is an interesting piece contain many inclusions to be explored.... Thanks again Kev! Insect inclusion of sorts... Some interesting flow patterns in the amber.... Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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