Obscured Image

[GOYA551]

My Amscope M500 has what seems to be a defect of dirt of some kind that I can only think is in the prism. What I see through the scope looks somewhat like a magnified fingerprint with a few bright spots of varying size in various places. It is definitely not something on the eyepiece and appears though all of the objectives. It appears more distinct at the highest magnification which seems to be because brighter light washes out the defect. I am aware of warnings in doing so but I disassembled the scope and cleaned the prism. I did see a small smudge on one face of the prism which I cleaned and I also used lens paper on the face that appeared clean. (I did not unmount the prism from its holder. I would imagine returning it to the correct position would be a chore) This did not change the defect. Am I correct that this must be something either within the prism itself of possible on the mirrored face of the prism?

[marcel_]

Could be your condensor maybe. If something dropped from the slide on top of it, it may cause some strange effects.

[imkap]

It can be anything from the light to the eyepiece. Maybe the condensor, or field glass or something... Prism might be the last thing you want to move, once you fiddle there is no going back
Try moving/turning various parts, remove the condensor. Maybe point an external light source/flashlight directly to objective.

[imkap]

Could be your condensor maybe. If something dropped from the slide on top of it, it may cause some strange effects.

yes

[GOYA551]

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I have addressed that as well. I placed a white piece of paper on the stage an light it from above. No change.

I have rotated the eyepiece with no effect. Actually I used a different eyepiece as well.

The focus of this aberration never changes either. The only way I can effect it is just various states of washing out with more light.

[imkap]

Remove the head and look through the eyepiece in your hand point directly through objectives, try to find the same thing...

[GOYA551]

Great idea. It is still there. I'm really stumped.

I tried looking with my left eye. There are still shapes visible but they are plainly different for each eye.
What in the world am I seeing? My retinas?

[GOYA551]

I do not wear contacts nor have I had any lens replacement surgery.

[imkap]

I do not wear contacts nor have I had any lens replacement surgery.

so that is out of the equation. Best not to fiddle with those lens yourself...

You're the only one who can solve this mistery, just take one part at the time and you'll probably find... Maybe a reflection in eyepiece under a certain angle, I don't know

[Hobbyst46]

Touching any coated glass surface with a dry tissue/lens tissue/wipe/textile is not a good idea.

[Roldorf]

Is it in just one eyepiece or both? Take a photo with a phone or some other camera, does it appear in the photograph? Is it visible in different objectives?

[GOYA551]

It's a monocular scope. I have tried with no success to take a photo of what I see. I don't have a camera with manual focus and that, I thought, was keeping me from being able to record what I see. Now that I know the pattern changes depending on which eye I use makes me think a camera might no see anything. I asked my wife to look and she described something different from what I see. The lens paper I used on the prism was wet, btw.

I feel like I'm trying to quantify a ghost. But each eye's image is repeatable. The strange thing is in the right eye, there is something directly in the center of the image and it looks very much like a red blood cell. It gets quite large if I move my eye very close to the eyepiece. There even seems to be a bit of pigment. There is also a smaller "thing" near it but it appears to be in a different plane. Meaning, moving my eye right or left changes the relative positions of the two objects.

On a happier note, I got my first sample of wetland/pond water in and although there was not much luck at first, I did finally see two moving pennate diatoms. At least, that my best guess as to what they were. They both quit moving shortly after I found them. I think maybe heat from the illumination is a problem

[BramHuntingNematodes]

Is there a bright overhead light behind you

[EYE C U]

START TURNING THINGS..WHEN IT MOVES YOU HIT THE SPOT

[GOYA551]

That image, taken with a cell phone camera, shows to me that what I can see with my naked eye is not originating within the microscope's optics system. If my eye was the same distance from the eyepiece I could focus on the diatom and also plainly see the "ghost" pattern that I have been describing. I think I may go get an eye test.

[imkap]

There are some reflections in the head of my microscope that I cannot see with my eyes but are visible on camera and some the other way around. It has to do with the angle of viewing.

[Chas]

Goya, it might be worth taking out the eyepiece and looking down the tube with the microscope's light switched on.
The light can get bounced off the inside walls of the tube and could create some ghosts in the eyepiece.
In any event, it might be good to line the inside of the eyepiece tube with a rolled-up bit of matt black paper (not easy to find when you want it!) or some thin black craft foam.
In some of these angled-eyepiece microscope designs the tube itself can be unscrewed out the back of the prism/mirror head, which would make getting the paper inside with the right length easier.
Worth a look anyway