Hello from Houston, Texas!
Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2019 4:09 am
Hello everybody,
My name is Lauren Herrington, and I'm a newbie to the microscopic world! (But not quite to this forum: I've already posted in the "My Microscope" forum... thanks for all the welcoming replies!! I figured I should make a post in the actual designated "Introductions" forum, so here goes...)
My first experience looking through a microscope came way back in February 2015, and I had a lot of fun sticking random items under there to examine. I had a collection of samples: mostly plants and household items, with a dead honeybee, too. The microscopes eventually got put onto a shelf, and I got heavily into astronomy for a couple of years.
I pulled out the microscopes again this summer and have been having a blast reacquainting myself with the micro-world! I've learned a lot about optics while doing astronomy, and I feel like that's given me a leg up while learning about microscopes themselves. It's also given me the ability to see all the ways I could be improving my setup.
I currently use a nice old Olympus KHC microscope which does not have a condenser. (Don't worry, I'm not planning on letting it stay that way!) Even without a condenser, it's pretty cool what can be seen! I currently use aluminum foil circles placed on top of the illuminator's lens, to give "darkfield" and circular oblique illuminations. More recently, I've been able to set up rudimentary polarization using two 1.25" glass moon filters meant for use with telescopes, one on top of the illuminator and one on top of the slide. And I designed and lasercut my own cellphone-camera-to-eyepiece adapter for the Olympus KHC! I might make a thread about that in a bit.
I'm in the Houston area, and from looking at the user location tags it looks like there's a couple other members around these parts! I don't suppose there's a microscopy club down here like there are astronomy clubs? I saw a picture somewhere on this forum of a field day, where a microscopy club took out some microscopes and a tent to a nature preserve, and shared the views with passers-by. That sounds like my kind of event!! I haven't been able to find anything nearby on Google, though. If any of y'all know of a microscopy meetup here in south Texas, please do let me know!
I'll close with this: Throughout my re-discovery of microscopy, it keeps striking me that there's really one big difference between visual astronomy and visual microscopy. Visual astronomy is 90% "coooool", with moments of profound depth and a sense of cosmic scale. Visual microscopy is 90% "coooool", with moments of profound disgust and a sense of never wanting to see that ever again, by god, never again.
(P.S.: I sign all my astronomy posts with "Clear Skies!", but I feel like that doesn't quite apply here-- how about...)
Clean Optics?
My name is Lauren Herrington, and I'm a newbie to the microscopic world! (But not quite to this forum: I've already posted in the "My Microscope" forum... thanks for all the welcoming replies!! I figured I should make a post in the actual designated "Introductions" forum, so here goes...)
My first experience looking through a microscope came way back in February 2015, and I had a lot of fun sticking random items under there to examine. I had a collection of samples: mostly plants and household items, with a dead honeybee, too. The microscopes eventually got put onto a shelf, and I got heavily into astronomy for a couple of years.
I pulled out the microscopes again this summer and have been having a blast reacquainting myself with the micro-world! I've learned a lot about optics while doing astronomy, and I feel like that's given me a leg up while learning about microscopes themselves. It's also given me the ability to see all the ways I could be improving my setup.
I currently use a nice old Olympus KHC microscope which does not have a condenser. (Don't worry, I'm not planning on letting it stay that way!) Even without a condenser, it's pretty cool what can be seen! I currently use aluminum foil circles placed on top of the illuminator's lens, to give "darkfield" and circular oblique illuminations. More recently, I've been able to set up rudimentary polarization using two 1.25" glass moon filters meant for use with telescopes, one on top of the illuminator and one on top of the slide. And I designed and lasercut my own cellphone-camera-to-eyepiece adapter for the Olympus KHC! I might make a thread about that in a bit.
I'm in the Houston area, and from looking at the user location tags it looks like there's a couple other members around these parts! I don't suppose there's a microscopy club down here like there are astronomy clubs? I saw a picture somewhere on this forum of a field day, where a microscopy club took out some microscopes and a tent to a nature preserve, and shared the views with passers-by. That sounds like my kind of event!! I haven't been able to find anything nearby on Google, though. If any of y'all know of a microscopy meetup here in south Texas, please do let me know!
I'll close with this: Throughout my re-discovery of microscopy, it keeps striking me that there's really one big difference between visual astronomy and visual microscopy. Visual astronomy is 90% "coooool", with moments of profound depth and a sense of cosmic scale. Visual microscopy is 90% "coooool", with moments of profound disgust and a sense of never wanting to see that ever again, by god, never again.
(P.S.: I sign all my astronomy posts with "Clear Skies!", but I feel like that doesn't quite apply here-- how about...)
Clean Optics?