Microscopes in use at the Star Party

[dunk]

My local astronomical society hosts public star parties where we cater for inclement weather by arranging indoor displays of telescopes, binoculars and meteorite specimens … latter examined through various low magnification microscopes

I've acquired various low-mag instruments for use at star parties and also adapted a Pentax close focus binocular for use as a stereo 'scope:



From L to R: (1) Opticron Gallery 'Scope fitted with accessory Micro Stand (has built-in illuminator) capable of 24x magnification; (2) ancient Leitz dissecting 'scope used with LED torch illuminator to examine translucent 'pallasite' meteorite specimen; (3) Leica T APS-C camera fitted with vintage Canon FD bellows and a macro lens … camera's 'live view' monitor enables examination of a lunar meteorite specimen illuminated via 2x IKEA Jansjo 'swan neck' LED lamps … silver foil when bent around subject serves as reflector to even out illumination; (4) Pentax 6.5x21 close focus binocular … with addition of large diameter achromatic close-up lens (e.g. Marumi c/u lens), Pentax bino is converted into a low power 'long range' stereo microscope; and (5) on far right, Olympus SZ III stereo microscope used at various magnifications with both incident and transmitted light for examining various meteorite specimens … mainly Lunar and Martian.

Children and adults attending the star parties are amazed to know they've examined a genuine but very tiny piece of moon or Martian rock. All the meteorite specimens are purchased from reputable dealers who provide documented proof of provenance … it's possible to purchase a tiny piece of Martian or moon rock (as meteorite specimens) for less than $150 each. I mount them onto microscope slides using home-made miniature light boxes (made from white card ) with 'cover slip' windows … miniature light boxes with cover-slip windows are secured onto the microscope slide with clear nail varnish.


… ancient Leitz dissection ‘scope

Close-up of ancient Leitz dissection microscope used to examine translucent pallasite meteorite specimen … LED torch secured with Blu Tack




Brunel Microscopes MX6T stereo 'scope … used to examine lunar and Martian meteorite specimens … 'scope has dual 10x and 30 x magnification … & has both incident and transmitted illumination . The modified microscope specimen slide shows the miniature white card light box which has a square cover slip window … ideal for both storing and examining meteorite specimens . Most of my meteorite specimens measure just a few millimetres in height / width.




Various binoculars both ancient and modern which are lent to visitors for astro observing … they're usually very surprised at the clarity of my refurbished WW2 military 6x mag porro prism wide field instruments

BW

dunk

[MicroBob]

Hi dunk,
that is a nice presentation for indoors astronomers! A related topic are the micro meteorites that were made popular by Jon Larsen and his book "In Search of Stardust". The Leitz dissection microscope is really nice too. The first instruments Carl Zeiss made from 1946 on were of this general design too, simple , not compound microscopes. Zeiss made a stereo microscope accessory for pocket binoculars: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=7913&p=69887&hilit ... sis#p69887 The combination does a similar job to your Pentax 6,5x binoculars plus close up lens.

Bob

[dunk]

Thank you Bob . I wanted to buy a Zeiss binocular stereo 'scope accessory a few years ago but someone beat me to it … Was hoping it might be compatible with a Leica 8x20 binocular . I have the Jon Larson book and tried harvesting micro meteorites … but was unsuccessful with resultant sludge samples.

dunk

[MicroBob]

Collecting micro meteorites is not that easy. One finds a lot of magnetic sperical objects but closer examination and comparison to Jon Larsens photos shows that they are terrestial. I do quite a bit of heavy angle grinding and welding and occasionally fire up my charcoal forge for a bit of blackmithing so I produce a lot of pseudo-micrometeorites. But even those are interesting to look at. I have three sets of samples waiting for closer examination:
- magnetic particles from our many gutters. A first look showed only terrestial objects. I placed some on a SEM-disc to have an EDX-scan made, no further progress yet
- particles from a rain pipe, collected in a 150µ sieve, not yet checked
- fireworks particles collected with a couple of squaremeters of plastic foil at a place where fireworks were started, not yet checked, I hope the sample is not too hygroscopic

[apochronaut]

clamping pairs of neodymium magnets at the outflow of a rain pipe should yield some , especially after a decent period of no rain. we get periods of up to 6 weeks here, some summers.......maybe i should just comb some rhubarb leaves with a magnet!

[DonSchaeffer]

There were no specimens returned from Mars. That would be something.