MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Pretty sure the slide boxes are meant to be ... stored vertically. Do yourself a favor and listen to Pete. I've seen slides ruined by storing them in a vertical orientation. Store 'em like books, as shown in the photo, and they'll take up less shelf space and prevent disasters! The majority of my s...

Hello Rogelio! I've been following along on that other forum for many years too, and am excited to see you here. I still go through the archives to marvel at the images you and Charlie, Marek, Waldo, et al, were regularly posting (and receiving awards for).

Very cool indeed! I have yet to come across one of these myself, so I'm officially envious.

Here is the same thing at a much reduced price: https://www.ebay.com/itm/384825254892?hash=item59995f63ec:g:kUMAAOSwX5tiUXqL Boy, that second one looks like a sweetheart of a deal, perfect for the curiosity shelf of an enthusiast and priced about right. I truly hate that older microscopes tend to b...

Different things work for different people. I my case the Zeiss rotating biological stage is the only show in town because it's relatively easy to obtain, relatively inexpensive for what it is, and very familiar to me and my fingers. You see, I keep three microscopes in routine use, and have equippe...

While enjoying a peach today it occurred to me that it was high time I had a look to see what the fuzz looks like "up close and personal", and that is the subject of these pix. Under the microscope it appears that I have something in common with peaches these days - the hairs are short, sparse and g...

I see plenty of damage, especially to planktonic diatoms which tend to have lots of long spines, just getting them to a slide and placing a cover slip. Yes, I know, there's always the inverted microscope...

That's a good question. What happens is that anything/everything larger than the mesh openings gets captured in the net, right? At the end of the drag, the net is raised slowly out of the water, and the collected 'stuff' eventually ends up sinking into the bottle at the bottom. So the key phrase is ...

Floating a coverslip is something I've fallen out of the habit of doing. Thanks for the great post and reminder to get back to floating those slips!

(Whenever I get back home, that is, who knows when that might be...)

A most interesting post, Pete -- thanks for that!!

Microscopy_is_fun wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 25, 2022 9:45 pm

...as bonus, some of the pictures are fun to look at.

In my best Charlie Chan impersonation, contradiction please: ALL of the pictures are fun to look at!

Great to see that the pictures find interest. Indeed they are - this is just the sort of thing this forum could use much more of in my opinion. Bravo! Lovely images and great discussion, well done. Botany isn't my area, and that is precisely why such a post as this is of great value to me. Thank yo...

imkap wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 16, 2022 10:15 pm

My son found, imaged and edited these, he's 11

I'm calling these very excellent images for any age! I'd be proud too - I think this world needs more 11 year olds like that.

Very cool, that's a new one to me - I love it when I get to learn something new, thanks for posting!

Hi Kurt! Dinobryon is a beautiful organism to see. Some day I will get a shot where more or the individual monads will be in focus. Dynobryan is one of those organisms that's super seriously tough to get good pictures of. Next time I get one I won't hesitate to try shooting a million frames in the ...

Those are very great images, very nicely done using methods we seldom see. Did you say you're using an oblique condenser?

Thanks, fellas!

I started a new thread for plankton net discussion, and want to cross reference it here: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=15132

This is a continuation of the recent thread "More Critters From The Plankton Net": https://www.microbehunter.com/microscopy-forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15089&sid=27d548bb580243ae7f44cf542ec456f3 Several of us got into a discussion of plankton nets, specifically the relative merits of "store-bought" vs...

I have a DIY plankton net made from filter fabric I obtained from a swimming pool supply store, and it works fine. I believe you can make plankton nets from a wide variety of materials. Using women's hosiery has the advantage of requiring no sewing, but learning to operate a sewing machine isn't dif...

zzffnn wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 09, 2022 3:38 am

Kurt, I still reside about 15 minutes of driving from you. Will stay here for maybe a year.

Did I move to Boston???

Dinobryan is one of my favorite specimens, thanks for posting!

I need to be getting commissions on plankton net sales! Seriously though, it's great to hear that my strange little adventures inspire others. Now I can tell people who know me pfffft. Phil Brown, if you can't quite post a link the next best thing is to say the name of the site, and often Google can...

Nicely done, it's no small feat to get both flagella in focus as you did!

That's a great video Fan, thanks for posting! David Attenborough narrates - bonus!!

He's AWOL. I demand he return at once.


Seriously, I hope all is well with him...

Thanks, y'all! The plankton net I use is this one: https://shop.sciencefirst.com/wildco/23333-large_default/fieldmaster-student-plankton-net-fine-ss-nitex-80um.jpg https://shop.sciencefirst.com/wildco/student-plankton-samplers/5938-fieldmaster-student-plankton-net-fine-ss-nitex-80um.html At ~$110 it...

Here are a few more weird and wonderful characters from the zooplankton in Upper Galveston Bay, that I've been hauling in with my plankton net over the past couple months. All except image #4 were shot through the 20/.70 Splanapo, and #4 through the 10/.40 Splanapo lens, on an Olympus BHS BH-2 using...

Lovely documentation, and always fun to hear of an engrossing good time at the eyepieces. I have to say that the video reminded me of how I feel if I eat too much and go to bed too soon. I liked the cameo put in by Synura.

BramHuntingNematodes wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 2:12 am

You can see the pollen in the honey from the flowers the bees visited!

True story, but only in raw, unfiltered honey. Dilute a drop in water so only a trace of color remains, then make a 'wet mount' and place the slide under the lenses and begin scanning.

Thank you all for the kind comments! Great photos, how do you make them stand flat? The parts of ones I observed always like to go out of focus. Maybe I should press the coverslip more? It's largely a case of choosing specimens to shoot with care; I try to seek out those that are relatively free of ...