I started with a Vitamin C tablet, put it in a cup and covered it with water. I let it sit for two days and then mashed it up and drew off a little of the water with a pipette and put a couple drops on a slide.
From there, I used an alcohol lamp to warm the slide. This caused the mixture at the edge of the drop to warm sooner and almost boil. As it warmed and evaporated near the edge of the drop, it precipitated out the ascorbic acid in crystal form, but since it was still under water, it concentrated more than normal and a ring built up around the edge of the drop.
Eventually, the rest of the drop dried up and as the wave front of drying crystals moved from the outer edges of the drop towards the center, I recorded some video of the process
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Here are some stills of the drop, magnified from about 40x to 400x or so.
1. 40x, using polarized light. This is the ring of crystals near the edge.
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2. 100x. A different look at the crystal pattern of the ring.
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3. 200x. A closeup shot of the little drop outside the ring.
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4. 100x. The Man In The Moon.
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5. 400x. A full frame closeup of the tiny drop.
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6. A closeup of the edge of a forming fractal from the drying edge front at the center of the drop.
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