Understanding the Light Microscope - tutorial by Peter Evennett

[Tom Jones]

This link was posted a couple of days ago on the photomacrography.net Beginners Micro forum by GaryB. Peter Evennett does an excellent job of demonstrating, with a modified microscope, microscope light paths and image formation fundamentals. No math and no ray diagrams! Just a modified Zeiss microscope and an interesting video setup.

It's rather long at 1 hr and 15 minutes or so, but well worth your time if you have any interest in how these things really work.

I wish I'd seen this many years ago. It's called Understanding the Light Microscope. It's not just for beginners, and I'm betting almost everyone here can learn something from it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60_jgZtyR6U

Tom

[gekko]

Thank you, Tom: this is fantastic! I believe it should be "required viewing" for anyone starting microscopy . It is totally clear and comprehensive. Thank you again for posting the link.

[KurtM]

Yes, thanks for posting, it's chock full of great information.

Love the visual aids, especially the ping pong ball eyeball (who knew ping pong balls were so useful in microscopy?)! I want one of those milky glass cubes too.

[Brad_]

Thank you for this valuable tip. Mr. Everennett is certainly an excellent teacher who put in a great effort into this presentation. I'll watch it again after a couple days rest.

Brad

[Tom Jones]

I'm happy everyone finds it as useful as I have.

I was pretty surprised how well he demonstrated everything, and there is a LOT of information there. The modified Zeiss he uses is really a marvel, and the design of the modifications indicates he really knows how to teach. I found it to be very, very impressive too, and thought it needed a wider exposure!

I know I've certainly learned from it. One full pass so far, with some bits repeated. Another pass coming in a day or two. This is too good an opportunity to pass up!

Tom

[gekko]

I wanted to "bump" this as the video is absolutely outstanding and gives an authoritative and almost complete explanation of basic microscope optics. The presentation is very condensed, and there are quite a few important concepts covered in a very short time. For one, I enjoyed it very much. Many thanks to Tom for providing the link.