MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

From what I found about dammar and autofluorescence was that it should have some. My own test showed that it has some, but very very little at a layer of ca. 0.17mm thickness. I will try to get some Benzyl alcohol or dry the varnish and resolve in xylene. I hope that the different solvent doesn't ch...

Hi Phil, thank you for pointing this out: The resolution is about 0,2µm, not 20µm! So the bacterium looks roughly as if seen an a 5x5 pixel matrix. Bob Bacteria are about 1µm in diameter. The resolution of a light microscope with oil immersion objective is about 20µm. This means that you can resolve...

Hi Bob, of your images just the one with the microscope is visible for me. Generally the eyepiece can't extract more out of the image than the objective has resolved, so it is usually best to use 10x eyepieces. If you can arrange with the current eyepiece, I would suggest to just use it and gain som...

Bacteria are about 1µm in diameter. The resolution of a light microscope with oil immersion objective is about 20µm. This means that you can resolve the bacterium and roughly see it's shape (. or - or ~) but not much more. To see it you have to adjust your condenser for maximum resolution - this is ...

Hi Doron, I tested with the excitation filter combination that blocks above ca. 460nm. I included the Caedax-Aroclor mix as I have it and the r.i. would be not extremely high. I don't know the r.i. of this mixture and I don't know the typ and concentration of the Aroclor. It probably was mixed as a ...

Hi together, I've just started to experiment with Epi fluorescence microscopy: http://www.microbehunter.com/microscopy-forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8206&sid=235a0e88a4cf3c5270dde54d8ecc7191 One thing I became aware of immediately was that my preferred mountant for botanical slides, Euparal, shows a lot...

Hi, welcome to the forum! Eyepieces with "glasses" symbol are for people who use the microscope with glasses on. I wear glasses, but take them off when I look through the microscope. The eye relief can be better on a new eyepiece, don't expect much other improvements. Woukd you like to show a pictur...

Hi Doron, one of my sons is often picking up plants or makes cuttlings and grows plants from them. This usually works quite well, better than with the Sequoia cuttlings. There are som specific tricks like applying willow bark solution (a tree that grows in very wet spots, e.g. next to river beds) an...

I did some more testing and optimized my lighting unit.
The next stain I tested was rhodamin B in combination with acriflavin.

They live quite happily in Europe and it is possible to grow them from seeds but it is not easy. Our experiments with cuttlings and seeds didn't fruit. Others have managed to grow plants, there are some tricks to optimize the results, as always.

Hi together, In the 1860s Kaiser Wilhelm ordered a pound of Sequoia gigantensis seeds, fitting to his general mind set. He didn't know that these big trees have tiny seeds and he got a lot of them. They were distributed to different forrest wardens and plants were grown from them. From this time we ...

I repeated the test with the excitation filters: The B 46 filter alone gave a medium green background, so this light passes the dichroic mirror and the Y 52 emission filter. When I add the 47/63 as a second excitation filter, the background becomes nearly black. Not logical but repeatable. My idea i...

What would be a good test for a mirror? Looking into it with a pair of binoculars at a subject with fine detail?
Ordinary sheet metal is not that flat so it is the question whether they ground it flat or not.

I got the filters and changed the setup: Excitation: Jenmed Dichrolight M 47/63 plus B46 ( the B46 alone led to a green background!) Dichroitic Mirror Zeiss FT 510 Blocking filter Jenmed Dichrolight Y 52 Object: Leaf of small (12cm) coniferous plant Super quick hand section with cutter blade Objecti...

Hi Mike, It's a good idea to think about this before producing the waste. In my view proper waste disposal is the main reason to limit the use of chemicals in the home lab. Microscopy recipes have been developed without much concern for environmental issues so it is a good idea to think about what i...

Thank you for your explanations, Doron! First: I got the filters of the first filter set mixed up (in writing). These are the specifications of my two filter sets: Filtersatz 14 488014-0000-000 BP 510-560 FT 580 LP 590 Filtersatz 17 488017-9901-000 BP 485/20 FT 510 BP 515-565 So the order of excitat...

The big microscope makers offer nice listings of filters and dyes as they like to sell their expensive stuff. For Rhodamin Zeiss has quite e few entries: https://www.micro-shop.zeiss.com/de/de/shop/filterAssistant/dyes/ If I haven't mixed this up in my short test this was a Wacker stain with Rhodami...

Hi Doron, what are the dental mirrors made of? Aluminium? If precise size is important the hard discs I used are not great. The diamond wheel didn't cut them well (maybe a question of the right wheel) and the mirror got hot which induces cracks. With patience and water cooling it will be possible to...

Well, I just took one and used it for my fluorescence condenser side lighting unit. The surface looks perfectly silvered to me, I didn't find a hint to uneven spectral reflection. This was out of my stack of optic DIY material, a 2,5'' disc. It was made from some kind of glass. I tried to cut it wit...

Hi together, I have built an LED lighting unit that shines from the side over a mirror and into the back of the reflected light fluorescence condenser III RS. This was quite difficult as the gap is just 24mm wide and I wanted to attatch the lighting unit to the stand, not the condenser. It works qui...

Hi Glen,
beautiful image and lots of detail in this small specimen! Would you say it is in fully living condition?

Bob

The 22mm camera lens leads to the circular image on the sensor with a lot of black around it. This is no big problem but you don't use all camera resolution that is available and have always to do a cutout to use a picture. In video mode some cameras use only a smaller inner part of the sensor image...

Hi together, this has developed into a quite interesting thread! At first a riddle, then funny (the mirror that was stuck back in reverse orientation) and then very informative with angled filter seats and interference filters for light correction. I know and use practically only microscopes of the ...

Hi Martin, welcome to the forum!
I'm sure you will find here people who share your interests.

Bob

Hi Doron,
I would have expected the oblique image to show more detail. I have made it a bit brighter, bit more contrasty and sharpened abit. Sometimes such editing leads to a gritty look and enhances the remaining dirt but in this case I like the result.

Bob

Hi Timur,
Nice find and a good video! I have never seen this species before.

Bob

One point to consider would be what happens in case of spillage. Flamable and aggressive solvents in an expensive microscope - not good. Is there space for a second flat safety container?

Hi Doron,
thank you for this hint, it is obvious but I had overlooked it completely. I think I will go for a black cover for the microscope, with an opening for the camera.

Bob

Do you positively identify vibration-noise in the images ? No, not at all, but this would be difficult to identify at this performance level. You would just get varying or sub optimal results without knowing it. So it makes sense to be careful about vibration as far as possible. I think a wobbly de...

Hi together, I forgot to report one thing: I usually just pop a Nikon 1j5 with eyepice adapter into a bino port and shoot my pictures. Usually this works well for my not too perfectionist approach. With my improvised fluorescence setup I ran into faily long exposure times like 2 seconds. I saw a str...