MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

i have the first one and it is highly recommended. I do not know the second one. whether it is worth the money depends on ones own needs. for beginners who want to get started with microscopy, the first book is very valuable as it contains all relevant info.
Oliver

just mixing agar and distilled water will not result in a culture medium for 2 rasons. a. lack of nutrients, which you mentioned b. osmotic problems (you use distilled water) The agar itself is only the solidifying medium, and it will not be used as a nutrient source (bacteria do not have the enzyme...

Hello, All digital eyepiece cameras are able to give a full screen preview, if the image is displayed full screen. This is a question of the software used, not the camera. The camera's resolution should be sufficiently high for the screen, otherwise the image is blurry. Even low cost 1.3 MP cameras ...

Polarizing 3D glasses (out of paper) can also be obtained from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss? ... 3d+glasses

Oliver.

Hello, ok, I think that I will also add my opinion here. One of the most important rules of making permanent slides is, that the specimen is compatible with the mounting medium. This means that a wet specimen can be mounted with a water- based mounting medium, and that if you want to use Canada Bals...

Stirring speeds up the dissolving process, but it will dissolve on its own as well. Sirring makes sure that there is a higher concentration difference between the undissolved salt and the surrounding water and therfore diffusion processes are faster. if you do not stir, an undissolved salt crystal w...

OK, I will start at the basics, for sake of completion. 1. Table salt is NaCl. The sodium (Na) is positively charged, the chlorine (Cl) is negative. Therefore they stick together and form a crystal (positives and negatives attract). Even though the chemical formula for table salt is NaCl, it does no...

3) Does any of the salt end up on the specimen in my experiment? No. The salt can not go through the cell membrane, because the salt is polar and the center of the cell membrane is non-polar. 4) Why is the saltwater solution considered to by hypertonic? Is it simply because there is more salt conte...

Try this: Try to log out and in and clear the browser cache.

:-) Ha, now I get it - took me some time to understand the responses! When I said robot, I did not mean an android, but rather a "software robot". This is a term that IT folks like to use often. A robot is a software, a program, that automatically fills out web forms and sends automatic emails. And ...

FYI: This is an anti-spam measure so that only "real" members use the PM feature, and not robots that send spam mail automatically.
Oliver

US drug stores sell 91% isopropyl alcohol, but not 96% ethyl alcohol,

Interesting, did not know that. Maybe it is the pure form? Sometimes they add something to it to not make it drinkable so that it can be sold?

Ethyl alcohol (ethanol) can be bought in drug stores etc. It is sometimes sold as rubbing alcohol (and then might also contain isopropyl alcohol). It can be used for making these small fires for keeping food warm in restaurants or ethanol stoves. It should therefore be easily available locally. Oliv...

What do you think of this one (a four piece set)? http://www.amazon.com/Kalevel-Graduated ... lastic+set Also fine. The one that I showed was simply the one that I found first. They are all lab quality. Plastic is good enough for water and other water-based solutions. Do not use for stains etc. as ...

You do not need a scale to measure the amount of salt, or any other expensive equipment. You do need a graduated cylinder to measure the volume of water. This is all. 1. Make a saturated NaCl solution, let's say 300ml. This will give you a bit more than you need. The water should be room temperature...

Hello, my main concern is the sharp edges of the slides cutting at the cardboard and producing paper dust. No paper dust, probably also due to the fact that I did not use the box a lot and also because the cardboard was made with smooth paper. After I made the box, I kept using the other boxes that ...

I made a slide box with corrugated cardboard for holding the slides. You can read the article with a description on how I made it in the PDF:
http://www.microbehunter.com/microbehun ... june-2011/

Oliver

Is this the best quality I should expect for a 5MP camera? 5MP is plenty for most cases. I have 3MP and this is also fine, if I do not crop. The bottleneck is often not the camera resolution, but the resolution of the microscope optics and the quality of the specimen. For more resolution, I recomme...

Rougly speaking, what volume of water --to-- what amount(s) of salt are we talking here? Suppose I were to make 5 different samples to keep it simple: no salt added, 25% salt solution, 50% salt solution, 75% salt solution, and 100% salt solution. Wikipedia: At 20 °C one milliliter of water can diss...

was to assume that by providing more images with less focus change between each, that I was "helping" the software by reducing the decisions it has to make regarding what is good data and what is out of focus data to be discarded. If you have a small step between the different images (less focus ch...

What softwares do you use? I like to use Picolay: http://www.picolay.de what is your general shooting/stacking procedure? 1. Choose specimen, magnification, etc. 2. Set camera to automatic capture. The software that I use (ToupView) allows for automatic picture taking every 2 secconds. This reduces...

To check if you have a field diaphragm for Köhler: If you close the field diaphragm, then you should start to see a small circle of light in the center.
Here is an explanation:
http://www.microbehunter.com/adjusting- ... umination/

Oliver.

If you wanto to take pictures of snowflakes, there is a simple yet effective method. I tried this several years ago. Trial and error needed. Cool nailpolish to below freezing temperature and apply to a slide. Then allow snow to fall on it to make an impression in the nail polish. Allow the nail poli...

1. Condenser iris diaphragm should be used to control contrast/resolution/depth of field, not brightness. Brightness should be seen as a side-effect. 2. Keep condenser in top most position. 3. Best theoretical resolution is obtained when the condenser setting is at least NA of the objective. Eg. if ...

Hello "Plan DIN standard infinity corrected This does not make sense to me and I would recommend that you talk to the company. DIN standard refers to the 160mm standard and 20mm threading. Infinity is company specific. The issue is a bit complex. While it might be possible that infinity objectives f...

Some of the microscopes on your list are "traditional" DIN microscopes, others (like the Amscope) is an infinity one. Be aware that the infinity microscopes are not compatible with the DIN 160mm standard and that infinity microscopes use proprietary (=company specific) optics. The choice between inf...

Hello, I would like to suggest a different approach (being well aware, that opinions differ on this issue). I would get a decent but much cheaper microscope (usd 200 to 300) at the beginning and use this one until you have more experience on how you want to develop the hobby further and until you ca...

Hello, Your microscope does not seem to be manufactured according to the DIN 160mm standard, which also defines the diameters of eyepieces and objectives. The 160mm standard defines the eyepieces to be 23mm in diameter. Measure it out to make sure. The camera will also have the same 23mm diameter. A...

Color the cardboard black, do not use reflective foil or white cardboard. Otherwise the light bulb might overheat due to reflection of the light. The filters that I once used for Rheinberg illumination started to heat up quite a bit, so make sure that whatever material you use, it is heat-resistent....

there are several reasons why there is a limit in image size, for those images that are uploaded. a. it reduces server space b. smaller images load faster and this makes it easier for readers with a slow connection to read the posts. c. smaller images also help keep data transfer volume (and thus co...