As part of my career I am required to use microscopes on a semi-regular basis, as a result I purchased a microscope (The Radical RXL-4T) which I set up at home with a Polarizing conversion kit. Having this at home was a great excuse to start to look at a range of different chemicals to see what the looked like under the microscope and if they created interesting shapes. In most cases the Microscope art shown below is a crystal which is dissolved in a solvent (including water), and is photographed against cross polarized light. Without going into technical detail, the light passes through the crystal and scatters multiple directions creating the incredible colors which are known as Birefringence.
Polarized Light Microscopy
The images in this gallery are not color enhanced, this is what the colors look like out of the microscope :).