My first microscope

What equipment do you use? Post pictures and descriptions of your microscope(s) here!
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kkokkolis
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Re: My first microscope

#31 Post by kkokkolis » Sun Feb 15, 2015 12:24 pm

It is clear I have a lot of work to do to focus right and then use the stacking method.
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500 Euros bill detail, Celestron 10x
500 Euros bill detail, Celestron 10x
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500 Euros bill detail, Sony 10x
500 Euros bill detail, Sony 10x
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500 Euros bill detail, Sony 2x
500 Euros bill detail, Sony 2x
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Byzantine mosaic digit, Sony 10x
Byzantine mosaic digit, Sony 10x
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charlie g
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Re: My first microscope

#32 Post by charlie g » Sun Feb 15, 2015 2:45 pm

Thanks for shareing the tour of:'King Solomons Mines', kkokkolis, I enjoyed it very much. Please try a low cost pen-lazer ( or the beam from your collimator-lazer?) ..shine it at different angles into some of your crystals. The internal reflections you may encounter are spectacular..and look at the ceiling above your crystals being so studied...in a dark room!

Like Crater Eddy, and yourself..the clouds get in the way for my telescopes all too often. I did observe the 1-2/15 comet Lovejoy...but it was -12 F the two nights I dragged out my SkyWatcher 6"achro.

More and more our earth, biology, and astronomy are comeing together for me...here we just celebrated:" Groundhog Day", which Germans here brought over from Europe ( halfway point between winter solstice and vernal equinox!).

And with your mineral microscopy..you can get to clay crystal inclusions, sands of our ocean shores, the dusts from volcanic blasts.

Please try and get two low cost polarizer filters. The astronomy firms sell the duo low cost as: 'Lunar observing polarizer filters'..with simple 'cross pol observing'...many of your crystals will show you spectacular personalities.

thanks for a wonderful tour on 'your mines'..and a wonderful conversation I enjoyed reading here. charlie guevara/finger lakes,US

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kkokkolis
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Re: My first microscope

#33 Post by kkokkolis » Sun Feb 15, 2015 5:49 pm

Thank you.
I've done that with the lazer, with red and green lazer, it is amazing.
I don't have a polarizing filter but I can change that. When I get on where should I put it, between the light and the item?

charlie g
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Re: My first microscope

#34 Post by charlie g » Mon Feb 16, 2015 4:10 pm

Hello...put one below the microscope stage..in the light path. To try the technique 'DIY', place the second polarizer filter right over the eye piece...rotate this polarizer as you look through the microscope. all the best, charlie Guevara/finger lakes,US

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kkokkolis
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Re: My first microscope

#35 Post by kkokkolis » Mon Feb 16, 2015 8:19 pm

I have circular polarizers available (from 3D glasses). Would they work?
Telescope polarizers (linear) are narrow (31.75mm) and tied together in the form I know http://www.telescope.com/Astrophotograp ... p/5560.uts, I might not be able to separate them and put the object in between.

charlie g
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Re: My first microscope

#36 Post by charlie g » Wed Feb 18, 2015 3:49 am

My 'Lunar polarizers 'simply screw apart...but microscope polarizer pairs are lowcost..for simple DIY cross-pol microscopy.

charlie guevara

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kkokkolis
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Re: My first microscope

#37 Post by kkokkolis » Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:22 am

Finally, these are the Eyepieces I ordered from Amscope.

Image

Pairs of 5x WF, 10x/22 EWF HEP and 30x/9 EWF HEP

This way and excluding the unusable incuded 20x WFs (80x), I'll be having stereo magnifications of 10x, 20x, 40x, 60x and, if it can take it, 120x for some biological samples.

charlie g
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Re: My first microscope

#38 Post by charlie g » Wed Feb 18, 2015 8:39 pm

Wonderful and quite adaptable gear you have, kkokolis. I sense though..you will get a case of: 'microscope-fever'...and start thinking about purchase of a compound microscope. The compound microscope with 2XPlan objective, and 4XPlan objective..with 6X, 8X,the usual 10X eyepieces...will permit a lot of 'near to macro observing'.

Our stereo scopes give huge 'working distance' between specimens and the scopes objective lens...but at the trade off...the very big trade off of low numerical aperture/low resolution. I sense above 60X total magnification...you will be aware of the drop off...the poor resolution of the images. Maybe even 60X total magnification will bother your senses with the low resolutions?

I really sense you may 'catch' a case of microscope fever. thank you for these beautiful crystals you share, charlie guevara

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kkokkolis
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Re: My first microscope

#39 Post by kkokkolis » Wed Feb 18, 2015 9:31 pm

I used all my telescope eyepieces down to 5mm (~50x) so I've seen 200x and it was good optically, much better than the photographs. I keep a William Optics Zoom 24-8 in my box (I'll show you my fully portable solution later) for higher magnifications until I receive my new eyepieces.
For the time being I miss lower magnifications/greater field of view, so my microscope fever makes me websurfing for pages with stereo zooms that go as low as 0.5-0.7x objectives.

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kkokkolis
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Re: My first microscope

#40 Post by kkokkolis » Wed Mar 04, 2015 8:40 pm

I received the Amscope eyepieces today.
The 10x is awesome, a real upgrade over the stock ones. Wider lens, wider AFOV and TFOV, better eye relief (not that it was bad to the 10x, but it was terrible to the 20x).
The 30x has the same qualities and here there more needed. 120x is absolutely usable. There is a problem though. The stereo effect is magnified and looks like misalignment, you get dizzy easily. I realized the problem and its solution. You have to observe from around 20mm away (its eye relief) and your eyes should align to the infinite. This way you get one image, otherwise a double (or a headache).
The 5x as predicted has half the AFOV of the stock eyepiece, truly tunnel vision (and a narrow tunnel it is). But it is useful with this model that has a 2x lower objective size, since 10x is the gemological standard and I also can compare views through my 10x loupe and my Microscope. Also the 3D effect is better. I might get a zoom model that goes down to 1x or lower someday but until then the 5x are useful.
The workhorses are the 10x. 10x and 30x were adapted from 30mm to 30.5mm with a single run of electrical black tape.
For me there is no excuse for not including top and bottom caps (Plossl top caps fit snuggly and by accident the 10x) and not standardizing the tube to 31.75. I have a small fortune of telescope eyepieces of great quality and I can't use them. But now I am covered with these Amscopes at least, so I don't mind that much.
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einman
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Re: My first microscope

#41 Post by einman » Wed Mar 04, 2015 10:40 pm

In regards to the Amscope accessories I own them all. So..in my opinion the 25X eyepieces are pushing it a bit. They are not as good as buying a used set of say Nikon 20X stereo eyepieces. The Nikons are a bit more crisp. There are two different Nikon 20X stereo eyepieces commonly sold on E-bay. The better set is the CW20X/12.5. The other is 20X/12. The 0.5 difference in field is not so much the difference as the amount of eye relief. 15x Amscope and Nikon are not that different. Though once again the Nikon has the edge.

The trick is to be patient and purchase the Nikons from a seller not trying to retire. I bought my Nikons for less than $100 though I have seen them listed for as high as $245.

If money is tight than don't go any higher than the 20X regardless of the make. The degradation in the image is generally just not worth the extra money. An option is to purchase an auxilliary objective if available. Recognize though it reduces working distance significantly but can give better images than using a higher mag eyepiece. For example say you have a 4X objective and a 10x eyepiece for a total mag of 40X. Adding a 2X auxilliary rather than a 20X eyepiece generally gives you a better image. I use my steresocopes for invertebrates so I generally have plenty of working distance. Minerals may not be as forgiving.

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kkokkolis
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Re: My first microscope

#42 Post by kkokkolis » Wed Mar 04, 2015 10:49 pm

Thanks. 60x is as far as I wished to go. It is the right magnification for the numerical aperture of 2x objective. If there was available a second objective I would choose 1x-3x. Anyway, this is my first microscope, if my interest persist I'll get something better in the future.

einman
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Re: My first microscope

#43 Post by einman » Wed Mar 04, 2015 11:22 pm

My apologies. I did not notice you had already received the eyepieces when I commented. I have never tried their 30X eyepieces.

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kkokkolis
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Re: My first microscope

#44 Post by kkokkolis » Fri Mar 06, 2015 12:05 pm

I know that my microscope isn't much but it gave me new capabilities and expanded my horizons.
I intend to use it during my summer vacations, when I'll have time and the opportunity to collect some specimens. So I needed a fully postable setup, capable for safe transport and even field use.
I had this aluminum case that once holded accessories for my Nexstar, but was unused for years.
There the microscope fits perfectly and under it all accessories.
Telescope and intermediate foam removed, we can see the accessories, all tidy and readily accessible.
What are these accessories?

Top row from left I have some Petri dishes, some liquid measurement cups and two philips drivers. Top center I have 2x3 sets of rechargable batteries, a urobox, some test tubes, a led light. Top right surgical blades and a lupe (I will be having my Belomo always with me because I EDC it, this is a cheap 5-10-15x as spare)
Center and bottom I keep the rest in boxes. Most used accessories (10x eyepieces, a Petri dish etc), eyepieces, my external LED light, my Celestron Microscope Digital Imager, a battery charger and a disection kit.
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kkokkolis
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Re: My first microscope

#45 Post by kkokkolis » Fri Mar 06, 2015 12:07 pm

When the microscope is going to be used I remove the scopestuff caps, put the 10x eyepieces (the caps come from generic Plossls and they fit only to the Amscope 10x, but it's a bless I can cover them anyway) and the charger to the socket or a trio of AA batteries and ready to go. The case stays besides my feet with everything in order, I just get what I want to and leave the rest inside.

No, the lollipop isn't mine. I keep my microscope in my daughter's room, because she is studying in another city, so it is left empty for me to use it at will.

And a pic of the wide lenses of Amscope 10x eyepieces. They are a kind of 60 degrees "planetary" design, something like a microscope Radian. So the 10x (25mm) is as comfortable as the 30x (8mm), with lots of eye relief and enhanced 3D effect.

It is a bit trickier to take an afocal pic, because of the eye relief, so I might make a tube accessory of some sort to keep the camera steady 2cm away of the lens.
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Amscope afocal.jpg
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Crater Eddie
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Re: My first microscope

#46 Post by Crater Eddie » Fri Mar 06, 2015 2:02 pm

Very nice setup, quite compact and portable. I like it.
CE
Olympus BH-2 / BHTU
LOMO BIOLAM L-2-2
LOMO POLAM L-213 / BIOLAM L-211 hybrid
LOMO Multiscope (Biolam)
Cameras: Canon T3i, Olympus E-P1 MFT, Amscope 3mp USB

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AllMicroscope.com
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Re: My first microscope

#47 Post by AllMicroscope.com » Thu Apr 16, 2015 9:32 pm

I had a telescope as a child. In the years later a friend of mine gave me an old Russian microscope and I am in love ever since. I keep this old bad boy somewhere around. If you are interested I will look for it to share the model and the brand. (If it has one :D - made in USSR)
:arrow: Microscope Books Library - it is updated daily with new microscopy books, Manuals, instructions and more. I hope you find this useful.

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