MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Thank you very much, Phil. Ah, that pretty much rules out almost all water immersion objectives that cost less than $400 USD each. How bad was the strain or background gradient (your “poor performance” is rated based on background gradient? The short LOMOs are not good at contrast, if you are also d...

When I worked as a microbiologist, our lab did use acids to wash cover slips. But now at home without a lab, I simply use a cotton or silk cloth to gently wipe them clean then rinse off with water. Most of the times, they work well enough for darkfield (after my wiping).

Phil or anyone who has tried LOMO short water immersion objectives (apo or not) on PZO DIC: please kindly let me know if they work reasonably well for DIC (if background gradient is reasonably even to eyes / can be adjusted in software). I have not done it, but it is on my to-do list for microscopy....

How much to block away depends on how much contrast you want for different subjects.

I usually have my condenser immersed and touching slide bottom.

You can also make DIY circular oblique light (using different circular mask sizes) and cover up 1/3 to 2/3 of the light circle. That would produce similar effect as what Macro_Cosmos does with his Heine condenser.

It would not hurt to keep several micro aquariums of different compositions and sizes too. I was told that they may start about the same, but surprisingly end up looking very differently under the microscope.

Thank you @macnmotion for your response, with further encouragement. I will just go ahead, like yourself, and deal with whatever happens. I would suggest you to simply go ahead and make one. I don’t think there are specific modern books about it (antique books on the topic may exist but would be ve...

Red sea is a nice place! I have some interesting seashells from that area.

Why are you aiming for a specific depth range (is 18 meters in depth not good enough for your purpose)?

I am guessing you are not allowed to bring (visible) dived specimens across the border?

Thank you, Charlie. Have you compared microscopic biodiversity with heater vs. without heater? Where I live can actually get pretty cool, even inside our home in winter (our family don’t like running high heat). I do not want completely natural (our outdoor nature dies down when air temperature drop...

I don’t know for sure, though OP may be able to turn a frosted plate to semi-clear by applying some slow-drying silicone oil?

The filter that came with my 3 gal tank does very little, the reviews all complain about how little water goes through it. Perfect! If I were you I’d try the tank without aeration to see how things develop. Is there a reason that you feel that aeration is required? Harry Hi Harry: it is just my gut...

macnmotion wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 14, 2023 10:58 am

You can get a cheap regulator valve to add to your airline which can restrict the amount of air. For example this:

Fluval A1175 Air Plastic Control Valve https://a.co/d/91AQxWT

One came with my air pump actually. I just forgot to use it

Thank you for sharing your experience, Harry. I forgot to mention that I have no filter running, on purpose. Since I started the aquarium today, I am not certain my aquatic plants will survive. So I thought air pump may help. My bubbler / air pump looks a little too powerful for my 3.5 gallon tank, ...

You may buy one frosted glass plate and one clear glass plate?

If not, buy two clear plates and spray on “frost spray” to make one of the two frosted? Solvent can remove that frost coat, in case you change your mind.

So I started a 3.5 gallon protist aquarium today, with aquarium heater, air pump (bubbler), LED light and pond water sample and some aquatic plants / pond soil. For those of you who have set up protist aquarium and determined the best condition for protists diversity, what settings do you use? Speci...

Such beautiful work, Hakan! Thank you for sharing.

Jose, I did not understand you there. It is common for a 100x immersion objective to have spring loaded (free-moving) front element that retracts when touching cover glass. Are you using oil immersion on condenser top lens? It sounds like you may get a focused image of field iris, if you immerse con...

Thank you, Jose.

I was going to ask you about tube length error on your DIY system.

15mm tube length error is not too much (may not be obviously visible) for immersion objectives with NAs up to 1.25. For dry objectives though, it does have some negative effect on dry NA 0.65.

Jose, is it possible to optically remove the dark grey gradient from your slit DIC (without using software processing)? Well implemented oblique contrast (in either circular oblique [COL] form or in offset oblique form) can produce smoother background without dark grey gradient. Have you compared CO...

FWIW, in my experience, Stephen (Scarodactyl) IS the equivalent of a reputable shop - plus being more willing to share accurate information and typically with lower overheads and fairer prices. I agree with Pete wholeheartedly and would recommend beginners to buy from Stephen. Even though I did not...

Jose Antonio Mena: very nice work, and it gets better and better! I don’t have anything to add but would be following and learning from your work.

You may not need to disassemble it. Just soak the whole thing in solvent, then re-lubricate externally (let lubricant drip in).

Very nice work, Pete! Which Zeiss DIC prism arrangement is more versatile for mismatched objectives please, especially vintage short objectives such as LOMO water immersion (non-plan) apos? I still have not set up my Nikon (stand) - PZO (DIC condenser and heads) - LOMO (objectives) yet. Have too man...

osterport, I usually use my LED at original light bulb filament’s (Köhler illumination) location. Its size is slightly bigger than the original filament size, in the form of a square. I usually don’t use all 30w of its power, as I turn down its output by a resistor control. So no, at Köhler illumina...

osterport, Your LED light may be too small (on terms of light diameter) and too weak (in terms of power). You can try raising the LED light higher to condenser bottom and maybe (or maybe not) diffuse it with layers of wax paper or printing paper. I wrote “maybe” there because diffusion takes away li...

Are they left handed or right handed shells? Haha, apo. Good question. Most common seashells are right handed (dextral). Left handed (sinistral) seashells are generally rare (there are exceptions in a few species) and command high prices. For some land snails, especially those in the Amphidromus ge...

Welcome to the forum, osterport. In addition to what PeteM suggested, you would also want to carefully adjust the X, Y and Z positions of your darkfield condenser. The darkfield condenser’s top lens should be almost touch slide bottom and have oil bridge in between. Horizontal positioning is very im...

Hi Don, You have some microorganisms there in the videos. However, from the video, I can not clearly see the “ ovular shapes that simply hang in the water and some circular forms that seem to be moving inside” to tell you what they are. May I suggest raising your condenser to as high as possible, op...

Thank you very much, apochronaut. Bruce would like to see if anyone wants to trade a right-handed mechanical stage with Bruce’s seashells. If there is none, Bruce would have your offer as an option.

For his scope, it should be on the other hand.