MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Scary, for sure. Contrary to what the article says, however, this brain eating amoeba--naegleria fowleri--is not rare at all; it is quite common--found just about everywhere in lakes, rivers, soil... What is rare is for it to kill people; but even there, there may actually be more deaths than are at...

Nice!

Kuddos to Riddell and other microscope wielders! From our vantage point, it's difficult to understand how logically-thinking scientists of that time could reconcile the miasma theory of disease with the observed nature of contagious diseases and their reproduction periods. But, there was a deeply-ro...

Kudos on the repair and on giving the centrifuge a new lease on life and keeping it out of landfill--always a win-win!

I second the suggestion that you identify the microscope. If this part is from a vintage microscope, is very possible that someone has an unneeded frame from which they could remove and give you that nosepiece part. I don't consider myself to be that prolific a collector of vintage parts; still, in ...

Be aware that many dimmable LED lamps use pulse width modulation (PWM) to dim the light, and that if the PWM frequency is too low it can cause eyestrain/headaches for some people. If you go the LED route, you should use a lamp that is voltage controlled or that uses a very high PWM frequency. This i...

Come on, guys, why so much anthropomorphizing Protista? These are single-celled organisms that are more like a biological automaton and not thinking, feeling beings. Remember, every time you wash your hands you're killing millions of microorganisms. Respect for/fear of karma, more than anthropomorp...

As a ham operator I can attest that electrolytic capacitors fail. Replace the capacitors Yes, generally the first to go in a power supply; and when one goes, others are probably not far behind. I like the screen proportions of my older Princeton monitor, so when one of the electrolytics failed a ye...

I usually rinse and reuse or in some cases simply discard slides. In fairness, I should probably standardize on a system that returns the protists to an environment where they at least have a chance.

Thanks, Pete. Just noticed the following Optiphot-2 nosepiece on Ebay, with slots for DIC prisms (but no prisms installed), which I assume is the one that works with that DIC tube. Do you know if this configuration also requires its own condenser, or does the "Universal Con. A" still work? https://w...

Does anyone know whether this Ebay item really is an intermediate DIC tube adapter for the Optiphot-2? It's described as "Nikon Optiphot-2 microscope UC DIC Intermediate Tube. The Nikon part number is 96001." https://www.ebay.com/itm/274364952364 It does look like the DIC tube adapter for the Optiph...

Under $1,000? I wish... The person who reported on buying the DIC kit for his BS 2081 paid $3,000+, if I remember correctly, before shipping and customs taxes.

No, the Chinese/Indian manufacturers aren't making DIC components in quantity, or we would see them on sites like Amscope.com.

I've wondered why that, if the demand is there, Chinese and Indian manufacturers don't step in with reasonably priced DIC components--they seem able to make just about everything else. I suspect there is not enough demand, and that they make more profit concentrating on copying the lower end systems...

Yeah, really need to know more about the specific options you are considering (and your microscope). Dedicated USB cameras are often used without a correcting eyepiece or photo lens, so depending on the microscope their images would suffer from CA compared to images from a DSLR with a correcting eye...

... https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Single%E2%80%90ring-polanret-phase%E2%80%90contrast-system-Pluta/2285a76f2b871bcb1c9c9aa8b2f31a5a41ccb112 Max Pluta (PZO) fiddled with it too but I don't know if PZO did any work on that. They were winding down by the time that paper was written. ... Really...

... I attach the Axiomat pdf on this. It's worth a look. Other (40-50 year old) microscopes which do this are the Reichert Univar and Nikon's Interference Phase Contrast mounted on an S-type. I believe also the Zeiss Jena Amplival Interphaco. There may be others but nobody does it today as they are...

... Amscope sells a simple 2x adapter for dslrs, and the same one is available from other sellers on eBay (marked ndpl-1(2x)). It is OK. https://amscope.com/products/ca-nik-slr Probably your best readily available option if you want to use the trinocular port. And if you get it from a vender offeri...

I have CFN objectives, so sounds like they may work for DIC, if I ever succeed in assembling the parts. Strange the DIC condenser for the Optiphot doesn't have a 10x prism, but it's true that if given a choice between 10x and 20x, I would choose 20x. Are there any sources I should be checking for DI...

Thanks for the information. I'll try to educate myself as to the different configurations. Any idea what a reasonable price might be for a complete set of the needed DIC parts?

I would like to accumulate (probably gradually via Ebay) the parts needed to add transmissive DIC to a Nikon Optiphot-2. Can anyone tell me what parts are needed, or point me in the right direction for the information? I'm also open to trying Frankenscopish solutions.

Thanks!

Here is Omax upgrade version: https://omaxmicroscope.com/microscope-accessories/illuminators/a195kl-microscope-kohler-illumination-attachment-with-iris-field-diaphragm-and-center-adjustment.html Seems expensive for what it is. I'm sure there must be others around. There is one available for the Eur...

Reminds me of photos from long ago of women assembling magnetic core memory by hand.

I doubt a person can tell much difference between images on a 15" and 17" screen. Depends a lot on what you find a comfortable viewing distance. I find 12.5" and 14" laptop screens quite adequate. Many/most? laptops also have video ports to which you can connect an external monitor--even a TV--if yo...

Is your microscope a trinocular? If not, I would probably get a USB camera of >5MP, that you insert into an eyetube and connect to a USB port on your computer. I like DSLR cameras for the larger sensor for trinoculars; but with a binocular microscope, most would be too heavy and bulky hanging on an ...

... "Oceanographers have known about these diatom-cyanobacteria symbioses in waters around Hawaii for many years," said Christopher Schvarcz, lead author of the study, "but the species we discovered are something quite different." The new diatom species are smaller and belong to a different lineage ...

Phill Brown wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 15, 2022 8:24 pm

The chances of getting back down to one microscope really are not good from here.

Yes, it's hard to find young microscopists (in need of a scope) fast enough to keep the herd from growing

Kurt, does the net come with that bottle attached to the end in the photo? I see that WildCo also has the net in a smaller 5" size. Is the mesh woven or one solid piece? I am wondering how it compares to those less expensive silk nets mentioned, which are woven; and WildCo seems to suggest its mater...

Not Lomo microscope grease. Vaseline is actually petroleum jelly. Look it up. Vaseline has an interesting history, getting a start as a miracle wound ointment and used for more things than one might suppose: "Robert Chesebrough, a young chemist whose previous work of distilling fuel from the oil of...

My cynical suspicion is that just about all grease, whether used on tank treads, sold in jars labelled "Vasoline," or in expensive little tubes for microscopes, comes out of the same large drums...

It's apparently something that offers modest improvement for a "bioimaging technique called stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) gain microscopy." . . . "SRS is widely used for imaging biological tissues on molecular scales. It works by illuminating samples with two lasers with different frequencies." ...