AO20 First impression!

[McConkey]

Hello All!!
My AO20 arrived last week but life has kept me from being able to setup and play with my new toy!
With my wife away all weekend visiting family for Easter so i had the perfect opportunity to sit down and fully commit to setting up and exploring the AO20 for the first time today.

When i unwrapped the scope from it's shipping box/bubble of protection i was blown away by the build quality of this thing. This thing is solid...the weight alone is enough to tell me i'm not handling some cheap piece of equiptment. I honestly felt like i could drop it and do more damage to my floor than the scope. Very very impressed with the build quality.

Right out of the box i'm already excited to put this together and start viewing. The scope is equipped with a phase condenser and 4 phase plan achro objectives (10x, 20x, 40x and 100x oil). I also purchased a dark field condenser with matching 100x oil objective.

The seller had given me a very descriptive (and incredibly helpful) step by step procedure on how to put the scope together, fine tune everything (incase shipping had thrown anything off) and get everything ready. Playing around and setting up the phase condenser and learning what everything does was awesome and it gave me a good idea of how to work the scope.

Another thought i had as i was setting everything up was how smooth everything moved. This scope honestly feels brand new and after about 10mins of playing around i got very comfortable with all the knobs and their functions. This is one very user friendly scope.

I've been letting some mossy gross water hang out in my office for the last week so once i had everything setup i plopped a drop of water onto a slide and took a deep breath!

Let me start off by saying Holy ******* ****...I didn't really know what to expect when looking at a blob of water but i couldn't believe just how much was going on. I had a small piece of moss in the water to use as a reference point when exploring and that thing was teeming with life. I have no idea what to call the things i saw but man i cannot wait to start photographing these things.

I spent about an hour (water dried up every 10-15min or so i had to re-drip) exploring droplets of water. It was great to finally understand all the different "settings" the phase condenser has and the effect it has on the view. I played around with all different types of "settings"...adjusting knobs, switching objectives, moving lens positions etc. It was a very eye opening experience and i had a blast. Focusing was an interesting learning experience...having the course and fine focusing knobs is obviously a huge help but it's incredible how fast things can move out of focus because they're swimming about. Very very awesome learning experience.

Next i threw on the dark phase condenser. Again, my first thought was Holy ******* ***. It's absolutely incredible to see how different something can look. I didn't use the dark field 100x objective....just stuck to using the 10x, 20x and 40x and the results were incredible.

My first experience with this scope has made me really appreciate even more all the images of specimens i see posted on this website. It clearly takes alot of effort, patience and expertise to capture some of the things i see...man do they ever move fast.

I don't have the adapters etc yet to attach my DSLR to the scope but i might try some photography down the eyepiece for fun.

Thanks again everyone for all the advice and help that got me to this purchase. I can't wait to jump into the deep end of this hobby.

Karl

[rnabholz]

Congratulations McC!

That is one fine looking piece of American Optical machinery.

It sounds like you are off to a great start with the prepurchase advice and the set up instructions you received. You have a lot of good times ahead and lots to learn, but it is all fun and that makes the experience a fantastic one.

Looking forward hearing about your journey, please do share it all.

Have fun!

Rod

[75RR]

Nice looking microscope. Congratulations!

I saw a rotifer on my first time ... was hooked.

[zzffnn]

Congratulations, Karl!

Do you know how does your 100x darkfield objective work? By using an iris or a funnel stop? What is the catalog number of that 100x darkfield objective?

If your darkfield condenser is the oil type, use Cargille type A (not the thicker type B) with it. Type B may be too sticky for beginners. Type A is about 9 times less sticky and much easier to use.

If your protists swim up and down too much out of focus, your wet mount may be too thick. Use a cover slip, if you have not. If you did, carefully use a tissue paper to suck out excess water from the edges of the cover slip. That should help focusing quite a bit and may also slow down some protists by pinning them down.

[McConkey]

Thanks all!

Rod - pretty sure you'll be sick of hearing from me in about week! Especially once I get my camera setup...ill be posting nonstop!

75RR - did a quick google for rotifer...awesome! I haven't seen one of those yet but I've seen a bunch of things swimming and spinning and zipping around! Is there a universally accepted book to reference from? I'd love a copy of something next to my scope that I can flick through to match up what I'm seeing.

zzffnn - thanks! The 100x dark field objective is a funnel stop cat.#1079. I haven't used it yet...ill try it out tonight though. Still preoccupied looking st everything else :p Appreciate the advice for oil type!

I've seen it mentioned a few times in various posts that some of you use a chemical to slow these suckers down and keep them still...did a quick look but could find the posts. What is the stuff used? Is it effect?

Thanks!

[75RR]

Not a book but a useful start

http://goo.gl/JMDccB

[einman]

Congrats! One of my favorite scopes! I have one set up for DIC and am in the process of setting another up for Darkfield. Post a pic of the darkfield condenser you are using..

[zzffnn]

Josh's web pages are great with lots of images for ID: http://microlife.parvarium.com/thumbnails.html

He frequents this forum too and helps us with ID.

Some forum members use methyl cellulose and/or lidocaine for immobilizing protists. They may or may not kill your protists, depending on species and how much reagents you use. I suggest not using any reagent from the beginning, until you familiarize yourself with normal behaviors of some protists.

[McConkey]

75RR - Thanks for the document...looks like i've seen a Platynematum sociale...or 147 for short :p

zzffnn - That link will help alot too! Thanks. I'll keep the methyl cellulose and lidocaine in the back of mind for future use!

einman - DIC is probably a few years away for me! Here is the DF condenser i have...it reads "1.5 to 1.25 SL.TH"

[Dale]

Karl, this is something I do a lot, just tweak the condenser slowly to the side, certain
settings will give you an incredible 3D image. Best on stationary subjects!

[Charles]

Karl,

Contratulations! You have a fine looking AO 20 there. I'm sure it will bring many hours of enjoyment!

Karl, this is something I do a lot, just tweak an objective slowly to the side, certain
settings will give you an incredible 3D image. Best on stationary subjects!

Dale, it's probably better to 'tweak' the condenser rather than the objective.

[apochronaut]

What's that stuff in those little brown bottles? I can just barely make out the labels. I think one says, scotch and the other one bourbon?

[Dale]

Not my fault that I can't tell an objective from a condenser, a certain forum member keeps
suggesting these awesome whiskeys for me to sample.
Karl, here are two inexpensive books I found to be very good to get going.
1. The Freshwater Microscopist by Tony Pattinson.
2. Guide To Microlife by Rainis.
Dale

[apochronaut]

Not directed at you, Dale. I was joking in Karl's direction. I know full well what is in them but they look a bit ominous, sitting there, with that flask shape.

[McConkey]

Thanks for the book suggestions Dale, it'll be nice to figure out what's swimming around!

I thought all mad scientists hide their scotch in the N-Heptane bottle Phil?

[KurtM]

Hey Karl, congratz on the new scope! I got quite a laff out of your observation that dropping it might do more damage to your floor than to the scope, ha ha. Those wonderful old AO stands are made of METAL, man, no plastic in them babies. For the money you can't beat the optics, and the quality of build can't be beat at any price as far as I'm concerned. The ergonomics are every bit as good as my Nikon E-600 and Olympus BX-45, which came along decades later and made a big marketing deal out of it. As you are busy discovering, there's good reason why some of us are so darn fond of our vintage AO/Spencer goods.

[einman]

Thanks for posting the DF condenser. Just checking on which part you were using.

[McConkey]

No worries einman! You said your using the AO20 with DIC? Was that an easy to process to upgrade?

[einman]

No worries einman! You said your using the AO20 with DIC? Was that an easy to process to upgrade?

The odds of finding a compete AO 21 (DIC) or the parts are very slim. Supposedly only 20 or so were made according to Martin Microscopes. I have a friend that owns Bolden Instruments. (4th generation) They have only seen 2, mine and one other in a university.

Hard to believe they made so few. But everyone I speak to says the same. Miller microscopes did not even know they existed.

[McConkey]

...the parts are very slim...

That's what I heard so it perked my interested when you said you had one! Very cool. Good for you!

[einman]

...the parts are very slim...

That's what I heard so it perked my interested when you said you had one! Very cool. Good for you!

It was a lucky purchase.

[wmodavis]

It has been fascinating to read through the saga of advice leading up to this purchase and then your pictures and report of the results.
I have learned a lot. This may be more fun than actually having a microscope of my own.
But then haven't experienced that so may be proven wrong.
Hope so.

I'm still reading, looking, learning and maybe soon will exude some of the joy that comes from the flask by the scope (er I mean the scope itself).

[McConkey]

wmodavis - Glad you found my journey useful! It was well worth the time and effort put in to research to find the right scope. What type of scope are you looking for? You should throw some questions out there to the forum and see what responses you get! As for the flask...it was emptied very quickly :p

[wmodavis]

McConkey - I have been posing my questions but they are likely limited by where I am on the learning curve. A particularly interesting aspect of your story was that you seemed, to my untrained eye, to have started way down on that curve as well so I could sort of step right into it and did learn a lot. I find this place a must have and valuable source of good advice.

[Dale]

Amen to that, I'd still be sippin Wild Turkey

[McConkey]

wmodavis - I was so far down I couldn't even see the learning curve! I had zero experience with a microscope. I have a strong background in photography and photoshop but it until my AO20 arrived in the mail I could barely spell microscope let alone use one

[wmodavis]

Understand. Much of that is same for me. Some background in photography back when there was film and none in Photoshop.