MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

This is interesting too:

https://www.livescience.com/13366-amoeb ... ction.html

Thanks Hobbyst46. Good to know. I will keep it in mind and store it in my mental 'maybe to try someday' list. Sounds like glass over plastic is not a major improvement but still would be interesting to compare.

Heather

Thank you for this link, 75RR. Long ago when I first bought my scope, I found an amoeba right away. Same thing with a water bear so I assumed they were common inhabitants and easy to find in my pond. Now they are nowhere to be found. Possibly there is more algae now and the micro-community has shift...

http://www.quekett.org/resources/rheinberg Really nice link about stop sizes. Thanks. I'm glad you reminded me about this link (had forgotten about it. Oops). I ended up ordering that stock Rheinberg set from eBay and finally today got decent results with the off-the-shelf discs through 10x. But fo...

Good find. That's super cool and nice depth of field for 63x too! Edit: or is that 63x total mag? Still nice either way. I supposed the cytoplasmic streaming motility method also aids in crude(or do I mean sophisticated?) circulation of all the stuff inside the amoeba. Been looking for, and unable t...

I'll try to get some pics uploaded, maybe by the end of the week. Meanwhile, the ones you see posted by reviewers on the Amazon site are a good representation of this mini scope's capabilities.

Mini-scopes and Leica may as well claim 1000x. The truth seems quite pliable in today's world.

On a whim, I bought one of those cheap portable microscopes on Amazon Prime day for a friend who had seen someone else using one and liked it. He doesn't have a microscope and this seemed like a good way to get him interested without spending a lot. Anyway, he's starting to send me pics and for a $3...

I've been tinkering with an OM139 microscope (Chinese) with infinity objectives and have a few observations. After accidentally ruining the original Plan 40x infinity objective that came with the scope, I replaced it with an Olympus Plan 40x/0.65. infinity 0.17 objective (same specs as original) and...

The thing about phase contrast is that it hasn't really been developed to it's full potential yet. That's a very interesting point. I'm about half way through that condenser-free phase contrast paper and it gives one the feeling that microscopes could be quite different in the future, in some ways....

Thank you for this link. I will investigate.

Thank you PeteM and MicroBob. Good things to consider. I will keep my eye out for a phase condenser since it seems unlikely my particular scope would work well with rings in the filter tray. Something cool and unwanted by the bidding masses might pop up on eBay. No hurry. It's just for fun and the c...

This may be a 'captain obvious' question, but is it straight forward to add phase contrast to a microscope by using a phase contrast ring of correct specs in the filter holder and adding a phase objective to the turret? Is it difficult to match ring size to objective if the two are semi-randomly plu...

MichaelG. wrote: https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/jav ... avefronts/

Thank you for this link. Very helpful. I wonder how prisms are glued together without causing optical aberrations from the adhesive. Or maybe it's a nonissue?

Heather

Thank you for the responses - all good information. I probably can't get back to the microscope until Monday, but did have time yesterday to turn a holder for the paraboloid condenser on the lathe. Painted it black to deal with wood splinter bits and it seems ok in that regard. Lighting is on my to ...

I picked up these two condensers recently for cheap. After very briefly testing by just holding them in place under the scope (they need serious modding to fit my scope), a few things are apparent. It looks like as Apochronaut and others have stated, the the paraboloid works well at 20x and maybe ev...

I just received some eBay Rheinberg filters today too... So far I am not getting the desired Rheinberg effect. Wondering what I am doing wrong. IMO, quite likely that you did nothing wrong. Rheinberg filters, as well as those DF opaque circle plates, are not guaranteed to work on specific microscop...

As a side note, I just received a bunch of neat Rheinberg filters from ebay and, though the diameter is right, at 3mm they are just a little too thick to fit in the filter slot of these condensers. Sad days. I'm currently wondering whether to try and return them or attempt to thin them down somehow...

Thank you 75RR for the explanation and the link. The bit on condensers aids nicely. And thanks, Apochronaut and MicroBob for further clarification. It will be fun to try some of these things out first hand to see the explanations in action. Eventually, that is, pending acquisition of misc needed ite...

This thread has inspired great curiosity about condensers. Perhaps this question is off-base, but how does a standard flip top condenser compare to something like this with a swing-out bottom lens? Do the 2 types effectively work the same way with different mechanical designs or are they fundamental...

That's a brilliant idea. I just ordered one too. Even though my fingers are nimble, it can still be difficult to drop the coverslips just right during slide making and this solder sucker might assist. Also, and maybe I am the only one, but I wash and resuse my coverslips whenever possible (can't bri...

That's a good looking scope with a nice range of objectives. Reminds me of a picture of a supermodel (beauty-wise at any rate) and gives me a new appreciation of monocular scopes.

Come on over nieces and nephews! Check out my...er, I mean your new DIC microscope! ;) I meant donate your microscope to a niece or nephew. That would get you both brownie points and an excuse to get another microscope. :) Good idea! Though I did just order a cardioid DF condenser for it - upcoming...

Come on over nieces and nephews! Check out my...er, I mean your new DIC microscope!

Turbinado sugar crystal in isopropyl alcohol. Polarized. I'm losing resolution in the transfer from the phone to the computer but this reminds so much of Ultima Thule I had to share it.

Those are beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

Well getting the XY assembly out was embarrassingly simple - I just removed the small linear gear plate and it came right out. I did learn a few things though. There is a spring inside that XY assembly that moves the lower knob in the horizontal plane toward the upper knob. Function unknown, but it ...

Update - just got the XY gear assembly out. Shouldn't be a need to disassemble the stage after all.

Any pointers or words of caution for disassembling a stage assembly? In a nutshell, the X-Y control knob assembly is loose, and starting to cause issues with gears not meshing well. At first I thought it might be a lube issue but after lubing all and reinstalling the stage on the scope, I can now se...

Thank you Apochronaut, for this comprehensive summation of all the information needed to create add-on dark field. My favorite magnifications are 10x and 20x, so this gives me more to think about in targeting the right style of condenser. My scope has beautiful BF images through 20x. By 40x there is...

Thank you for sharing this. Very interesting. It must be dangerous attending the Microscience Microscopy Congress where unbridled lust could arise from sampling the equipment therein.