GOES microscope photograph tagger

One water sample at a time. Load the photographs, fill in the details once, then save. The position and time are those of the sample, not of the photograph.

GOES Foundation www.goesfoundation.com

Blank check every 20 samples, or every 100 photographs, whichever comes first. Run the filter with water filtered below 20 microns, such as reverse osmosis, ultra filtered or ceramic filtered water, and tick the blank box in Step 2. It is a reminder, not a requirement.

Step 1   The photographs
none loaded, up to 5

Please use JPG images. Set the microscope software to save as JPG or JPEG. Other formats are accepted, but JPG is the format the survey expects.

Step 2   The sample details

who took the sample

in words, for example ‘mid Atlantic, 400 nm W of Cape Verde’

choose the closest description

used only when ‘Other’ is chosen

fill in the position, date and local time first

12.3456 N   or   12 20.736 N   or   -12.3456

42.9876 W   or   42 59.256 W   or   -42.9876

the date the water was collected, not today

the clock time where the sample was drawn

Step 3   Save
no folder chosen

GOES Foundation  ·  www.goesfoundation.com  ·  the photographs never leave this computer

Load at least one photograph.

How to use this page

1. Press “Add photographs” and choose the microscope images for ONE water sample. Up to five may be loaded, and they all receive the same details. Please use JPG images. Set the microscope software to save as JPG or JPEG.

Photographing here instead. Fill in the details first, then press “Use the microscope”. The picture fills the screen and the camera is opened at the largest size that camera offers, which on the Plugable microscope is 2592 × 1944, the same size as the survey archive. Press “Take photograph” once for each frame, moving the slide between frames, and use the focus figure at the bottom to judge the focus: turn the wheel until the number stops rising. The space bar takes a frame and the escape key closes the screen. Close any other program holding the microscope first, such as the viewer supplied with it.

Only the disc is kept. A white circle on the screen marks the filter disc, and the square around that circle is what gets saved. The rest of the frame is thrown away, because it holds nothing and the smaller picture makes a much smaller file. Line the disc up inside the circle, and move the slider marked Disc if the circle is the wrong size. At the standard setting of 75 the saved square is 1458 pixels, which is 5.0 millimetres across on this microscope.

2. Fill in every box. The bar along the bottom names the next thing to fix.

Important. The position, date and time are those of the moment the water was collected, not of the moment the photographs were taken. A sample drawn at 09:40 and photographed at 13:40 is entered as 09:40. Nothing is filled in from the computer clock.

Latitude and longitude may be typed as 12.3456 N, 12 20.736 N, 12 20 44.16 N or -12.3456. The time is the local clock time where the sample was drawn. Nothing is recorded in UTC.

3. Day or night is worked out from the position and the sample time using the altitude of the sun. Change it by hand if the sample was taken at dusk.

Blanks. Every so often, run the filter and the microscope exactly as usual but with water filtered below 20 microns, such as Reverse Osmosis, Ultra Filter, or ceramic filtered water, and tick “This sample is a blank”. The photographs then show only what the equipment and the air contributed, which is what tells you how much of a real sample is contamination. The page counts samples and photographs since your last blank and suggests one every 20 samples or 100 photographs. It is only a reminder, and nothing stops you saving without it.

4. Choose where to save and press Save. The photographs are copied with the details written into their EXIF tags, and a line for each is added to samples.csv. Your original files are never changed, and nothing leaves this computer: the page does all the work itself and needs no internet.

GOES Foundation, www.goesfoundation.com