MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Beautiful microscopy, thanks for sharing. Many times I observe biotic interactions on vastly different scales of size, yet with common features of tight mobbing/ tight active clustering of a huge group of one species...about an organism which sets up a gradient field. Sea gulls mobbing about a feedi...

Beautiful images, ADi, thanks for sharing. In our fingerlakes/US orchard, we have an awful invasive wasp species, the 'european orchard wasp'...your wasp looks kind and cute compared to my 'wasp foes'. They grow to the size of wine corks..when you approach them to attempt net-capture..they actually ...

Hello, use one-time only ( if your keenly concerned about habitat transfers) wide-mouth plastic bottles..after these square shaped containers are empty of their: rice, bird seed, fish foods contents. Your small field net can be rinsed in pour of boiling water once your back to your home bench. 7oz p...

Welcome to a wonderful forum ( thanks to Oliver Kim), Jim. Is it true that institutions and universities off-load microscopes at auctions 'dirt cheap'? Do you keep a contact list of institution/ university folk to supply you microscopy chemicals/ reagents? I hope you may opine on these matters...I h...

Thank you, WWW, for the ID input. Imaged with Nikon DL phase contrast...apologies for the dust in my light path.

Yes, yes, thanks WWW..I just visited online images of this charming ciliate. charlie g/fingerlakes/US

Please enjoy this freshwater ( new to me) ciliate. I can describe the fascinating ciliature rythmic beating on on side...opposite the side with 'lumpy series'..overall the anterior end was observed to be flexible enough to fold on this ciliates axis. I will attempt to ID this organisms..but not toni...

I took a simple 'scoop sample' of surface waters to at my microscope bench..encounter this wonderful ciliate.

The blue-green algae filaments are present all about my 'new to me' ciliate.

Hi all...my artificial pond and stream this year gave great microscopy. Past winter stoneflies carrying water-mites were collected on meadow snows below my mesocosm..I posted a thread on this earlier this year. The good news is the emergent aquatic plants in the stream segment are splendid, the wate...

Hi aleksander and all....I have a wonderful : Reichert/Austria trinocular microscope..love it!!!this was my .my workhorse stand for years.. until I upgraded to a Nikon trinoc :bf/ df/ phase microscope. My Reichert/Austria 100X oel objective totally suggests your 100X Reichert/Austria objective is de...

Hi, macieje/ microplan...there are quite a few groups of: cladoceran water fleas..this nice observation you share ( thank you) is probably in family: Bosminidae...perhaps in genus: Bosmina. Online you can visit 'species of cladocerans ( water fleas)...quite a few families/ quite a few Genuses..your ...

Congrats, richbart....terrific magazine outreach for : 'microscopy world views'. best, charlie g., fingerlakes/US

Thank you so much, Tom, for fleshing out the histories of many of these 'field microscopes' in your collection ( I find my microscopes breed when not in use..or is it eBay/ bricks& mortar flea market-fever on my part?). I have to ask you, Tom, and others to speculate on the 'field need/ the market n...

Thank you for this microscopy field project, 'sure squint'...very enchanting and so relevant to harsh changes in our biomes now upon us. I really was drawn along with you questions which emerge as we observe the habitats microscopy. Wonderful microscopy sharing . That terrain is harsh! But I wish I ...

Thanks for visiting this beleaguered stream,Adi and 'squint'. When weather 80 F, or higher, good doggie averages an hour stretch , and then retreat to indoor A.C., water bowl with ice cubes. This is a 'winter doggie'. ( This neighbors pony has a knack for escaping their nylon fiber-tape enclosed pas...

Hi, Dennis, thanks for looking. I hope the canadian forest fire smoke is not bad in your parts ( we for over a decade, resided in Ridgewood/ Bergen county, NJ). Smoke in NYC today was very unhealthy.

I read in several texts that Vaucheria also grows on damp soils, Vaucheria often found in green-house clay pots. So after I flushed my wonderful wet-mount slide into my artificial stream/pond complex, I placed the stream collected Vaucheria mat on an outdoor potted plants damp soil...for two weeks t...

Microturbelaria also graced this freshwater stream mat of Vaucheria.

Incredible how hypotrichs can 'walk so tall' as they function in their communities.

This simple wetmount slide was a microscopy joy! I carefully flushed it out at my outdoor artificial stream/ pond setup.

Dr.G.W.Prescott, " The Fresh-Water Algae", 1964, pg 136 aptly states: " At maturity the growths are dirty green in color. "...." the dark green velvety mats harbor a veritable zoological garden of small animals.". At my microscope bench I never before without seeking variety of phyla/ variety of pro...

Hi all, here in finger lakes/US we had a very dry 5/23..in fact only : 5/8ths inch rain fell in past 38 days until rains again refreshed our region the first week of 6/23. Vaucheria large filamentous algae mats covered a few flat stream stones. These dark green mats of filaments appear to unaided ey...

Thank you, Don...great magnification choice for those protists...it was almost being there to observe your crafted video clip. We here in finger lakes/NY are extremely dry weather ( 10th worst dry weather for May in our records)...how does your mud puddle stay with waters in your neck of the woods? ...

Thanks, eiman, for the specs, and the image of your optic. charlie g

Hi, einmam..I just stumbled upon this query you posted . I often use a: " Nikon Japan ( serial # 136013...I give this for vintage of the optic), Plan 60/ 0.7 DL, LWD 160/ 0.7-1.5 Ph-3" with correction collar. Red color specs on the optics barrel for this phase-contrast objective. I kindly ask, eiman...

Hi all, the foot print at your microscopy bench is huge...for an inverted microscope, and the use of a stereo scope has a strict 'sweet spot' of magnification which is useless for most protozoa and protist algae. A good Plan: 1X, Plan 2X, Plan 4X objective on a trinoc-cmpd scope , and 6X oculars (as...

Welcome...terrific to have a current vocational microscopist share this forum.

When you have time, please share images of your various current work place/ microscope systems.

Happy spring'23, again, welcome....charlie g/ finger lakes/US

Hi, steve. Macroinvertebrate freshwater insects are a strong signal to freshwater quality status. Aquatic ( part of the indicator insects life cycle having an aquatic phase) insects have been grouped into tolerance levels for 'water pollution/ water fouling'. Good water quality is indicated by mayfl...

Hi all, OP ..as has been already asked: 'what type of basic soil biology' are your plans for microscopy application? There is so much excitement with the soil interactions/ communications between plants, fungi, bacteria in the rhizosphere /rhizobiome ...for water cycles/ mineral cycles/ nutrient sha...

Hi, steve, in early spring...look at stream bottoms where sunlight ( no leaves on shore trees yet) bathes the stream bed. These wonderful diatoms bloom in such density that you may notice( when sunlight shines down) ...you may notice a golden-yellow stream bottom 'fur'. If really gentle in collectio...

First off...my apologies to steve for this hijack of his wonderful thread on epibionts observed on late winter mayfly nymphs. Please keep watching for epibionts on all sorts of protists and meiofauna, steve. Bruce...ahem... I never touted 'formal taxonomic use' of my appeal, my enchantment for the t...