MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Hi, I have found everyone here is very helpful, welcome my friend, and dive straight in!
All the best from Bill.

I have just made up a couple of glycerin mount slides, and have just trimmed off the excess jelly. There is a little grease left on the slide, should I use anything to wipe it away, such as rubbing alcohol? Also, I have been leaving the previous glycerin mounts I have made for a couple of days befor...

Rylander, that sounds like my sort of bookshelf! I sometimes think that it is the support of full bookshelves alone that holds the roof up over my house! I see a lot of Cladonia species on my travels, and photograph as many as I can, however I have heard that in many cases a species level ID may inv...

I too am a Nikon "Merchant" (as those pesky Canon chaps referred to me down at the camera club). I use my trusty D90 body and repurposed lenses from my old Olympus OM 10 manual camera, a 50mm and a 28mm (Both Zuiko lenses and too good to scrap) which I use with a reversing ring, and a manual Tamron ...

Hi John, many thanks for your reply. I have made a couple of attempts at slides, my last one was much improved, with very few bubbles in, so know I'm getting better at this. I expect to be out in the Welsh countryside tomorrow, so should have a good few samples in the near future, and I get to test ...

Hi I have a older jar of Brunseal Clear Ringing fluid, but it looks brown, does anyone know thus stuff well enough to tell me if it's out of date or what?
All the best from Bill.

No worries John! Quite curious about this myself!

Hi,great to meet you, I hope to speak with you soon, thanks for posting.
All the best from Bill.

Haha! I don't get to the higher reaches, more some of the taller rocks in our gardens these days! Fixative, FAA is superb and I use it exclusively for all my (Botanical) tissue. Another simple method would be to use OH, which may be used to fix, dehydrate and clear if you prefer, the acid in the FA...

John B, another moss guy, my prayers are answered! Do you ever get up to the high ground in the lakes? High altitude bryophytes fascinate me. Thanks for the info on mounting; very helpful. Do you recommend a fixative at all? I had planned on using Formol ascetic alcohol, do you think this necessary?...

Thanks for the welcome, good to know you two. This place seems like an amazing resource, it's great!
All the best from Bill.

Here's a quick picture of my SPX 5 Binocular Microscope. I have had it set up for looking at pond life, mainly small crustaceans like Daphnia and Hydra that I collected either in my garden or on days out in the countryside. I am setting it up to examine moss samples, you may just see my sample rack ...

. . . And I live in the United Kingdom. I have many interests and hobbies mostly centred around natural history in some way. As far as microscopy goes I am somewhat rusty, having loved learning to use one at school, and that has been all for twenty years! I found a nice German stereo microscope and ...

Hi, I want to make slides of the mosses that I photograph, for cataloging and identifying purposes. I want the slides to be as permanent as possible. I had planned to use formal acetic alcohol as a fixative and mount in glycerine jelly. The slides would then be sealed with Brunseal. Will I be able t...