30 November 2019 | New Scientist | 29Glorious gem
Photographer Chris Perani
THIS exquisite image captures
the astonishing internal structure
of crazy lace agate, also known as
Mexican agate. This section of the
mineral is some 65 million years
old. Agate is related to quartz and
infused with aluminium and iron,
which help create the chaotic
explosion of colours and patterns.
Visualising the complexity of
agate requires special techniques.
Photographer Chris Perani uses
a 200-millimetre camera lens, to
which he attaches a microscope
objective lens in order to achieve
the necessary magnification.
Each final image is made up
of around 25,000 photos merged
together. To do this, Perani first
takes 350 photos of a section using
a focus rail that moves the lens no
more than 10 microns per shot
(the average width of a human
hair is around 75 microns). He
uses software to merge them,
repeating this process 70 times.
Perani finds the crazy lace agate
at specialist fairs and inspects each
specimen for scratches, which he
says would make the photo look
terrible. This kind of photography
captures the intricacies of minerals
like never before, he says. ❚
Gege Li