Hello from the West Coast USA

What is your microscopy history? What are your interests? What equipment do you use?
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gconcepcion
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:39 pm

Hello from the West Coast USA

#1 Post by gconcepcion » Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:56 pm

Hello,

I'm a former academic who used to do alot of fluorescence microscopy of dinoflagellates in the Delwiche lab @ UMCP:
http://blog.umd.edu/algaeevolve/personn ... b-members/

The equipment I used most was a Zeiss Axioskop and a Zeiss AxioVert.

I also had the fortune to play around with an Olympus DeltaVision OMX™ for a few months when we were demo'ing the unit and have a set of really incredible high resolution dinoflagellate thecal plate photos that i've never released anywhere that i'm sure alot of people would appreciate.

I've always been the poor academic so never had a nice scope for home use, but I did have a Wesco CX-RII compound scope for a while that saw moderate use. Unfortunately I sold that some time back due to some hard times.

Several years ago I managed to snag an excellent condition Vintage Nikon SMZ-2 for $40 from the local university surplus store that i'm going to post about in another thread in a minute (looking for LED retrofit advice).

I'm also doing a little bit better now a days financially and i'm in the market to start acquiring the parts to build my own 2nd hand Axioskop for home use, so I'm sure I will be here alot looking for advice.

Best and Happy 2019!

EDIT: p.s. Most of the microscopy I do for hobbyist usage will be looking at stuff in my aquariums, sampling local nature around the SF Bay Area, as well as mushroom spore identification!

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Mintaka
Posts: 241
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2015 6:24 am

Re: Hello from the West Coast USA

#2 Post by Mintaka » Tue Jan 08, 2019 10:34 am

Welcom gconcepcion!

I also have a surplus microscope that I'm looking to convert to LED. The scope is a small, basic Chinese monocular of uncertain pedigree, but its optics yield a surprisingly pleasant view. I want to convert it from 220V AC tungsten filament to 12V LED. If I can pull it off, the little scope will make a nice toy to take along when I go camping, where mains power supply is not always an option.

To this end I've procured some low profile LED lamps at ZAR20 ea. (Just over a dollar in your money.) I think they may be intended for automotive use. As pictured, I expect either of the two types of lamps will easily slot into the base of the one-eye-peeper, with room to spare.
LED lamps for microscope conversion.jpeg
LED lamps for microscope conversion.jpeg (366.58 KiB) Viewed 5580 times

gconcepcion
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:39 pm

Re: Hello from the West Coast USA

#3 Post by gconcepcion » Tue Jan 08, 2019 6:02 pm

Mintaka wrote:Welcom gconcepcion!

I also have a surplus microscope that I'm looking to convert to LED. The scope is a small, basic Chinese monocular of uncertain pedigree, but its optics yield a surprisingly pleasant view. I want to convert it from 220V AC tungsten filament to 12V LED. If I can pull it off, the little scope will make a nice toy to take along when I go camping, where mains power supply is not always an option.
Right now the scope i'm converting is just a simple StereoZoom so nothing fancy:
LED Transillumination for a Nikon SMZ-2 Stereo Zoom Microscope
To this end I've procured some low profile LED lamps at ZAR20 ea. (Just over a dollar in your money.) I think they may be intended for automotive use. As pictured, I expect either of the two types of lamps will easily slot into the base of the one-eye-peeper, with room to spare.
LED lamps for microscope conversion.jpeg
But I am planning on building an Axioskop and retrofitting with LED's in the coming months... in fact I just ordered the LED illumination two days ago:
Axioskop LED Illuminator

I'll let you know how it goes!

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Glycolyse
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Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2018 10:07 pm

Re: Hello from the West Coast USA

#4 Post by Glycolyse » Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:34 pm

Welcome gconcepcion !

I am interested in your former work. Could we talk about it in the PM section please ?

gconcepcion
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:39 pm

Re: Hello from the West Coast USA

#5 Post by gconcepcion » Wed Jan 09, 2019 12:36 am

Glycolyse wrote:Welcome gconcepcion !

I am interested in your former work. Could we talk about it in the PM section please ?
I'm always happy to discuss my former work!
All of my official peer reviewed work is Molecular Genetics/Genomics/Bioinformatics based, the microscopy (for me) was mainly used to identify cultures of various protists for eventual isolation and DNA/RNA extraction and subsequent sequencing. I was just fortunate enough to work in the molecular genetics lab of a geek who likes microscopes.

Feel free to PM me with any questions!

charlie g
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Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:54 pm

Re: Hello from the West Coast USA

#6 Post by charlie g » Wed Jan 09, 2019 4:34 pm

Welcome to this wonderful forum, Greg. Thank you so much for your intro link to your recent postdoc studies, and microscopy. I'm sure your labcontacts permit you access to the useful reagent sources for microtech in your home microscopy. I sure wish I knew how to get to University level surplus equipment auctions...I hope you get that often useful home centrifuge from such a source .
I.m wishing a good year ahead for all of us. Charlie Guevara, finger lakes/US

gconcepcion
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:39 pm

Re: Hello from the West Coast USA

#7 Post by gconcepcion » Wed Jan 09, 2019 5:42 pm

charlie g wrote:Welcome to this wonderful forum, Greg. Thank you so much for your intro link to your recent postdoc studies, and microscopy. I'm sure your labcontacts permit you access to the useful reagent sources for microtech in your home microscopy. I sure wish I knew how to get to University level surplus equipment auctions...I hope you get that often useful home centrifuge from such a source .
I.m wishing a good year ahead for all of us. Charlie Guevara, finger lakes/US
Thanks!
I've been out of Academia / the lab for 7 years now, so my contacts are growing sparser, but yes, I do still have access to certain sources... Do you live near a major University? Most major University's have a surplus goods auction warehouse.
For University of Maryland, College Park it's Terrapin Traders
Here's the info for
Stanford and Berkeley area where I live now.

There are some random eyepieces listed on the Berkeley site right now.

Also, don't neglect government auctions - my internet buy-itis got the better of me yesterday and I bought another used Zeiss scope - this was medical laboratory surplus:
Axioskop 40
I'm not feeling spectacular about the purchase, I was kind of hoping someone would outbid me - but in the end I won it. I'll be satisfied if I just get a nice set of Zeiss objectives / eyepieces...

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