Microscopy Forum

Hey

I'm working on some very small sculptures. I'll attach an image of a working sample (the figure in the image is about 0,3mm wide).

The sculptures are going to be exhibited relatively soon. But I'm having some technical trouble with how to actually show them. You need a magnification of about 20-30x to be able to view them properly. I have some loupes that do this; however, their focal length is only about 10mm and I want a larger distance to the object. Ideally 50mm or more. This is because I also want people to be able to see the sculptures without magnification (to better understand their actual size), so I don't want the loupes getting too much in the way of the normal view.

I'm attaching a sketch of how I would ideally like to exhibit the sculptures. That is, in glass vitrines with built-in magnification of some sort and a relatively large distance to the object. And if possible, with the means of magnification looking very simple. Does anyone here have any suggestions?

I've tried a number of different things. What works best so far is a home made microscope where I attached two lenses from single-use cameras to a 165mm tube (using this guide: http://www.scienceinschool.org…..microscope). It gets about 20x magnification and a slightly larger distance to the object (about 35mm). However, the image quality is very poor. Can anyone here think of a way to improve it? I'm guessing better lenses would go a long way, but I really don't know much about lenses.

I would be grateful if someone could help me out! – Laurits