MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Laboverts are very nice scopes. They even have their own patent: US patent 4,619,503, which also covers the Fluovert (the fluorescence version). The idea was to make an inverted stand more like the usual upright scope, which would lessen confusion when moving back-and-forth between the two types. Th...

Why on earth would a biologist think that single cells were "genetically programmed to respond uniformly to some stimulus"? Cells are well known to have a multitude of different receptors in their cell membranes. Depending on the effect of a variable stimulus on different types and/or different numb...

I'm sure Apo will chime in, but from my perspective, 1) it looks like a nice scope, 2) you don't need DIC, probably limited application for bacteria, and may not be available for this scope and certainly not for your budget; 3) the scope is shown with B&L eyepieces; get yourself some AO eyepieces. A...

Interesting paper:

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1 ... 528/ab267d

High eyepoint eyepieces are generally meant for people who wear eyeglasses, so they don't bump their glasses into the eyelens of the eyepiece. The red dot seems to indicate a Leitz eyepiece that is best for photography; perhaps this means that it is a projective eyepiece (not for afocal), but there ...

"How can quantitative surveys of ‘Microplastics’ have any credibility ?" Why not? When you read a simplistic summary of research in the popular press, sometimes it makes no sense. You will have to read the journal article to understand the constraints and methodologies involved, and to understand th...

Thanks for the very comprehensive info, Dave P. I know many the later (1980s) 160mm TL Leitz scopes used FSA heads also, although they often had a dash with some additional letters, indicating particular models with different features. Is that when the the 42mm head mount came in? ( versus the earli...

If it makes you feel better, by all means return them to their original habitat. But realize that this action is for you, not them. In some manner this can be seen as symbolically honoring or respecting life, but it is probably only really meaningful to you, not so much to the microscopic critters. ...

Another possible reference, from the esteemed McCrone Research Institute:

http://www.mccroneinstitute.org/v/90/as ... tification

It is currently on PBS in the US. It is an outstanding production.

Well, they were pretty practical for what the scopes were mainly used for: scanning metallic surfaces. The rails and grooves were usually juiced up with a suitable grease so that the friction and stiction were not a big issue. The Invertoscope was also made with an x-y stage for trans-illumination. ...

Fn-F6 to lower, Fn-F7 to brighten does not work? Sometimes there is a delay until the actual change...

That is a mounting point for one end of a toggle spring, that provides the two positive setpoints for the prism position, i.e., in the light path or out of the light path. Yours is missing, which is OK, as the lever and prism will still work; they just aren't held in the in or out position very well...

No, just a prism moves with the lever.

Where exactly is this threaded boss?

Floaters should be easy to distinguish from other FOV phenomenon. If you jerk your eye's point-of-focus to the side, the typical floater should lag a bit, i.e., not move as much as the jerk, but after a second or so, "catch up", and slide back to near the center of the field (at least the especially...

I would think that the oil, especially if it eventually spreads out to form a sheen or layer, would probably negatively impact the air-water gaseous exchange rate or process.

The protrusion is a 3-layer slide holding multiple filters.

I don't think a differential thermal expansion is a problem, unless you put the microscope in an oven or other source of high heat. The bigger problem for scopes is high humidity, causing fungal growth on the glass surfaces. Some people in tropical climes use enclosures with dehumidification in whic...

So, I will try black paint, perhaps it will help some. Carefully of course. Need to verify that the paint is compatible with immersion oil. Good point; I now retract my suggestion to use hobby paint, unless it claims to be oil-resistant. Radio-controlled airplane paint might work, if for use on pla...

I'm not sure if it makes a lot of difference what paint you use, but you might go to a hobby shop and get a small jar of flat black paint that modelers use on model planes and trains. Clean the surface with acetone, and stroke gently with a modeler's paintbrush upwards along the outside of the frust...

Exactly; if the flash is off-center and the lighting is thus not optimal, than the camera auto-exposure may be using too long of an exposure, picking up vibration.

The faint bands above all the edges might be caused by movement during exposure. Other than that, try putting a diffuser into the flash light-path. Another thing to try is substituting a hand-held led flashlight for the flash unit, and move it around laterally at the flash's normal position, to see ...

It seems to me that no one asking questions on a microscope forum should be frightened by a little 'technobabble'. It's like someone asking the question on a forum for four-wheel-drive vehicles: which is better, a Jeep Model x or a Land Rover model y. You are going to get a lot of technobabble, and ...

Thanks for the links to Conn's, very useful.

Here is some more on various protocols, for those wanting information overload:

http://www.ihcworld.com/protocol_database.htm

The projection screen is possibly for this IOR microscope, the MC7, which has the broad top surface that matches the screen shape and size:

No, the 820 moves the specimen strictly in an up-and-down motion, no extra motions for clearing the blade, etc. It jogs the specimen forwards only toward the blade, at the top point of the stroke. So the motion is straight down for the cut, straight up without any forward-or-backward motion, jog for...

Well, Harold must have fallen off the boat. I'm not sure I would want to fall into the Yangtze, these days. Thanks for the breakdown. Comprehensive as usual. All of the objectives pictured are parfocal. The working distances are about 1mm for the left two, 10mm for the shorty, and 2mm for the newest...

Here are five different 10x objectives that look to be for the Balplan, the farthest left a flat-field that looks very much like the adjacent planachromat. Does someone know the difference and/or the evolution of the 10x objectives as displayed by these? I have some guesses, but it would be nice to ...

Those are nice images! If I were you, my next step would not be an upgrade of scope or camera, but rather a move to focus-stacking. That would significantly enhance the appeal of your images, which seem to be fine in terms of resolution, focus, etc. (which, if deficient, would have been the reason f...