Hello from science teacher from cambridge, Uk

[billben74]

Hello all.
I got my 'scope just last december from Brunel microscopes. These guys are mentioned quite a bit here and in micscape.
There certainly the good guys and I would recomend them to anyone from the UK.
I got an ex-demo trinocular sp160 sporting a 5 turret equiped with plan acrochromatic x4,x10,x20,x40,x100(oil) and should get a x60 when Brunel get the relevent shipment of x60 objectives. I have it hooked up to a canon 1200d.
I can view in brightfield, darkfield and through polaroids.
I've been busy climbing the learning curve and pouring over miscape and this place for everything I can find.
I have to steal time on my 'scope between the heavy workload that teachers in the UK have to manage and a 3 year old.
I used to be a software engineering in my previous career.
So far I've taken a lot of nice pics of lots of things, hair through poloroids. Some crystals, the best two have been codeine phosphate and citric acid.
I managed to do whole mounts of flies, spiders, some microscrustacians in fructose, the "alcoholic moutant" from Brunel (eur something?) and glycerin jelly.
None of these have been great and I'm still trying to master this but I have got some nice pics of bits of the slides that where free from bubbles etc.
Recently I managed to rig up a reasonable epi lighting rig for about £15 (about 20 euro/dollars) via the wonders of ali express and the slow boat from china.
It works fairly well and I recently took some pictures of my mum's recently dead fish (as in a few hours previously).
It was a little fella whose name I'll find out next time I go the place where my mum got the fish.
Its eye was pleasing.
Its now in FAA and at some point I mean to look at its insides.
I'm working up to doing "proper" slides. I have a cambridge rocker which haven't used yet but am itching to get going with.
I need to get a little better at the mounting side of things and have bought a brunel hand microtome so I can practice the mouting thing prior to taking the plunge and processing all the way to "proper" slides.
Thanks to John B whose various posts I follow, and I will, when it happens follow your protocols.
There are other people to thank, like gekko and another chap (Stanislav Antonov) who's article on micscape (maybe also here) about the cambridge rocker and the need to create a slight vacuum during processing was also helpful along with his kind emails encouraging me to take the plunge into using my microtome. I will fairly soon.

Anyway hello all,
I include a picture of my 'scope

[JimT]

Welcome Billben74. Looks a nice setup and sounds like you know your way about. Looking forward to your future posts.

JimT

[gekko]

Hello Billben74,
Welcome! Nice to have you join the forum. You seem to be well on your way to be another expert "sectioner", what with your microtomes, microscope, and enthusiasm.

[charlie g]

Welcome Bill...please don't try and 'do it all' at the start! What level are your students? Is there any biology in your class agendas? Does your institution use compoud microscopes for courses?

There are online resources for microscopy for students at all grade levels.

With you sylabus demands...perhaps 'nest your microscopy' to enrich the course work of your classes?

Please enjoy this forum community, Bill. charlie guevara/finger lakes,US

[mrsonchus]

Hi Bill & a warm welcome - you've got to admire a man who has a fish's eyeball in FAA! That my friend, is the way to do it! Good advice often given - get thee to Walter Dioni - he was a true master.

Onion-epidermis is a good way to begin - it can be 'peeled' from the storage-leaves that are the onion that we eat - usually the inner surface is recommended - this is actually the upper-surface of the leaf (adaxial). I however would suggest the outer-surface, as being the lower (abaxial) surface of the (storage) leaf it has many stomata that are very fine for imaging.
The peeled-epidermis will be only 1-3 cells thick and is able to be treated with the techniques used for the ultimate paraffin-wax embedded tissues that you are aspiring to. All mounting techniques may be applied to this, I've worked through all of Walter's (botanical) articles and they all work!
You have FAA - fix a few peels in some of this for 2-3 hrs and you're off! Wash the FAA away with say 50% IPA (OH), then several changes (say 3) of water and you're ready to apply an aqueous stain such as the supremely useful Methylene-blue..
Rinse the excess stain away with water, dehydrate with a series of OH strengths from water to just OH and you're ready to permanently-mount into alcohol-tolerant mountant - the Euparal that you have from BM! Let it set for a few days before sealing it with nail-polish - it is able to be viewed after about 1/2 an hr, just not sealed at that stage.

A great quick and easy way to a good set of permanently-mounted slides that will start you off with the 'wet' side of processing!

A few pictures of my Walter-D adventures when I started almost exactly a year ago now!

websize_the_bench.jpg (85.33 KiB) Viewed 4569 times

Walter's methods used..

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This is his PVA-mount in action - I still have these slides today - fresh as they were then.

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Here's an example of the superb details that Methylene-blue can reveal..

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This is Walter's 'fix with boiling water' option - as can be seen the tissue is not compromised and is definitely good enough to stain and mount - this is the outer-epidermis mentioned, as such the stomata are visible too! Great fun!

ws_boiled_fixed_onion.jpg (257.68 KiB) Viewed 4569 times

Wow these take me right back to where you are now - you're in for a really great time with a superb hobby and the company of all the friendly and very talented folks of this fine forum! We'll all be with you all the way! Let me know when you start with the histology and I'll give you a few pointers from my own experiences - any time.

Great to have you on-board!

[billben74]

Thanks all for your warm welcome.
Charlie:
I teach 11-16 year olds, the school system is, unlike most of the uk, mostly split 11-16 and 16-18.
I'm making inroads into bringing more microscopy to the school but as with most things this will take time.
I've actually possibly made my first convert - the photography teacher to whom I send some weekly pics which she uses in her lessons.
I'm (almost certainly) picking up an ebay bargin next week which I will try to (with my still very limited skills) teach the use of to said photography teacher. In time we both hope this will become part of her course and I 'm hoping she will get hooked.

I'm doing things in science too but this will take time.

John B
Thanks for the onion skin advice. I have seen very pleasent cytoplasmic streaming in onion in dark field which I saw within a week of getting my 'scope but I hadn't returned to them. I will now do this and try to get better at mounting. I find fructose the easiest but it takes ages to dry.
I'll check the various options and some staining experiments as next main thing. So I can continue my holy grail of "proper" microtomed slides.

And thanks JimT and gekko for your encouragement.

I'm tired now but I'll post some pics in the pics place in the not to distant. Then you can see the fish eye before... one day hopefully there will be an fish eye after.

Thanks again,
billben

[mrsonchus]

Good luck billben, looking forward to the fish-eye!