MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

zzffnn, The main interest in the forams and diatoms were "what are they" since they really had never seen anything like that. The louse slide probably got more good photos, and actually scared a couple kids since it completely filled the frame. 8-) There are a couple of problems letting them move th...

This is the last of the lot.

And now we have a whole bunch of new photomicrographers!! Not too bad for less than 30 seconds of instruction.

Tom

More photos from the STEP Conference. I could be wrong , but they seem to be having a good time!

Tom

There was a huge STEM outreach demonstration Wednesday and Thursday, Oct 5 and Oct 6, at the STEP (Science and Technology Education Partnership) Conference (http://myscienceeducation.com) in Riverside, Ca., at the Bourns Technology Center. Sponsored by Bourns, University of California, Riverside, Ab...

CmchPt, What apochronaut said, and: Your photos aren't useful for diagnosis. The mouth and throat contain so many different organisms that are normal flora that a culture is the only way to tell what is there that might be pathogenic, be it bacterial, viral, fungal, or whatever. Any worries about ma...

Thanks for the kind words everyone.
I'm really glad you enjoyed it!!

Tom

This video is a bit different from most. This is from an algae mat, collected using my plankton net from a slow moving stream. Not being an entomologist I was pretty clueless as to what kind of nymph it was, but was fascinated watching it crawl around in the Spirogyra. I decided that to ID it I woul...

einman is right. The Olympus BH-2 series are very, very nice microscopes. The very common DPlans are great objectives. BH-2's are very sturdy as well. Lots of parts available. I have several I use in outreach. I bought those as I had used them in a clinical lab for 20+ years and found them almost bu...

Metrophage, Don't worry about using a cell phone. Here's a link to an article I wrote awhile back for Micscape: http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artapr16/tj-cell-phone-photomicro.pdf It's a pretty thorough treatment on using a cell phone camera for still and video photomicrography, and has some e...

I have an SZH too. You're going to love it!

Tom

That's a BX series adapter that works fine with the BH series.
The Olympus BX standard hex wrench is 3 mm.

Tom

It's very likely normal, and it's not the condenser. Look at the camera live view output resolution. It's probably much less than the sensor is actually delivering to the file, particularly in older cameras. Even the sensor cannot deliver what your eye can see unless you are dealing with wavelengths...

I absolutely love the first one, but the shot down the "throat" of the Difflugia sp. test is view I've never seen. Very nice!!

Tom

If that's true, every single clinical laboratory is in serious trouble!!
Methinks someone is yanking your chain!

I'm happy everyone finds it as useful as I have. I was pretty surprised how well he demonstrated everything, and there is a LOT of information there. The modified Zeiss he uses is really a marvel, and the design of the modifications indicates he really knows how to teach. I found it to be very, very...

This link was posted a couple of days ago on the photomacrography.net Beginners Micro forum by GaryB. Peter Evennett does an excellent job of demonstrating, with a modified microscope, microscope light paths and image formation fundamentals. No math and no ray diagrams! Just a modified Zeiss microsc...

The manufacturer's website for the MA-500CK (http://www.amscope.com/5-0mp-microscope-digital-camera-compatible-w-windows-mac-os-4-scale-calibration-kit.html#product_tabs_description_tabbed) says the frame rate is: "30 f/s @ 640x480, 8 f/s @ 2592x1944 pixels" It doesn't mention anything in between. I...

Not quite... The specimen is smeared onto the slide, allowed to air dry, then mildly heat fixed, generally by flaming in a bunsen burned flame. My first microbiology professor told us to pass the slide (smear up) back and forth through the flame a few times, then lay the bottom of the slide onto the...

If you want to get rid of the circle, and fill the sensor with the image, you can use a digital zoom. Zoom in just enough to eliminate the circle, and then take the shot. It takes practice to hold it still, but it works pretty well. It will work very well if you have some mechanism to hold it steady...

You didn't even need the whip!

Tom

Viruses are cultured in living cells such as HeLa, or another cell line. The cells themselves, with the virus still inside, and/or the virus particles themselves after exiting the cells, are then embedded in some form of epoxy. The epoxy block is sliced very, very thin (less than 100 nm :shock: ) wi...

Hi Charlie, You're welcome! It took quite awhile before I finally figured out what I wanted to do. I had a rough drawing sitting on my counter for almost a year before I finally decided to just start cutting metal and see what happened. Fortunately they aren't too hard to make. My machining skills l...

It took me awhile to get used to it a couple of years ago. Now I can get most images in 3-4 seconds from about 24" away from the screen.

I have to say I LOVE the crab larva, and it's perfect for stereo.

Tom

These last two photos show the bottom of the assembly. The first shows the grease plate assembly and the BX adapter plate, and the second photo shows them assembled and ready to mount on either the BH-2/BHS or the BX series of microscope. Sadly, I don't have any drawings or good measurements for any...

This post details the final version of my rotating glide stage for the BX/BH-2 series of microscopes. As I recall, the stage mount on the Nikon Labophot 1 is the same as the BH-2 so the same style will probably work there. Other microscopes would probably need to have different adapter plates design...

Here are three images of the Lomo rotating glide stage for compound microscopes. It cost me $75 on EBay. This was the first glide stage I tried. Before this, the only glide stages I had ever seen were essentially flat-top stage plates without slide clips or the mechanical slide holder. They were des...

Several people were intrigued by the smooth panning I was able to achieve in the Mayfly Nymph video with my home made glide stage. (http://www.microbehunter.com/microscopy-forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3436). billben74 asked for pictures, so here we go. The first photo shows the SZH glide stage in place...

billben74 - I'll be posting several pictures and a description of my glide stages shortly in another thread.

Tom

Thanks everyone :D ! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I forgot to mention too, it was shot in dark field, utilizing the ILLD dark field base The Mayfly was an accidental find, and I had never seen one before. Rather fascinating to watch, particularly the tracheal gills. He survived a couple of weeks before ...

Here's a video of a Mayfly nymph I found a few weeks ago. It was among a clump of algae floating on the surface at the edge of a very slow moving outflow stream from a local lake. The microscope is an Olympus SZH, and the camera used is a Panasonic GH4. The nymph was in a glass petri dish with 5mm o...