MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

I love that metal sarcophagus. Just like many other things in the world, dust covers have progressed from solid metal to flimsy plastic. From silverware to disposable cutlery.

My idea of badges was nothing more than to indicate financial support in a way that's more obvious than it is now, to encourage others. I can see the rationale but I think it might not be completely unbiased to recognise only those who support the forum financially. There are many forum members who...

For the tropics a dehumidified based on a Peltier element might work. I once bought one to dry out our little used car in winter time but it didn't work where a bigger compressor based dehumidifyer does work. But in a warm room it should be able to keep a microscope box dry. If this Peltier device ...

Perhaps worth reiterating that a HEPA air filter can work wonders in limiting dust. Decent ones are around $100, use relatively little electricity, and could run 24/7 on a whisper-quiet low fan setting. If scopes are in a closed room, a small dehumidifier set to turn on and off with a humidistat ca...

There are two refillable calcium chloride damprid canisters inside to keep it dry (I'm in the tropics). I cut out small grooves at the bottom of the back of the box to let the wires through. I have since lined the whole box with plastic sheeting on the outside to make it less breathable so the damp...

i have micro plastic spheres all over the place..all that spray paint dust. Are they considered plastic? What do they look like under the scope? Do they require reflected light (if some of the ingredients are opaque oxides etc.)? Interesting. I wonder how widespread micro-paint pollution is. We use...

Thanks John, I'll be interested to hear if the plant sections give any hidden messages with parallels! I don't have any plant sections myself. Thanks Michael for the chart. I quite like the uncluttered design of that one with its detailed graduations of the axes. There's this pdf version of the Zeis...

One other possible consideration for the plastic-based soft dust covers is whether they contain plasticizers to make them softer, which may leach out after some years and leave a greasy oily residue on anything it touches. Many stamp collectors actually have this problem with their old albums whose ...

Like Charlie, I blow down the entire microscope after every use (all optics, connections, gaps, upwards-facing surfaces, vents), before retiring it for the night, although I am too lazy to cover the optics with cups (I leave the camera mounted on the trinoc all the time, detaching it only to transfe...

Thank you for the screenshot and quotes - nice to see the micrographs and some of the detailed findings. Just as a thought experiment, if I were to go out and collect soil samples for a similar analysis, one of my first problems would probably be how to identify the microplastics in the soil. If it ...

In polarizing microscopy, the polarizer and analyzer are almost always used together in the crossed or partially crossed position. However, the McCrone article on interference colours mentions the use of parallel polarizers to generate complementary interference colours and "zero in" on retardation ...

I just found another instance of the intermediate polarizing attachment stacked on top of the BH2-MA. I caught sight of it in a video "How is investigative analysis different from routing testing" by the McCrone Group. Here's a couple of screenshots: Screenshot 2021-10-22 at 13.06.02.png Screenshot ...

Thanks for the alert. It's really interesting to me as it combines the microscopical exploration of both soil and microplastics. I see from the abstract (I can't access the full text) that they used micro-Raman spectroscopy and SEM to identify and characterize the synthetic fibres in the soil. They ...

Hmm, I just visited this Leica webpage that has numerous micrographs taken with their flagship DM4 P. Their micrographs in plane-polarized light seem to have even worse green-purple fringing than mine, including the ones taken with the Plan Fluotar objectives which I assume are similar in aberration...

Thanks for the replies and for sharing your personal experiences! I realise from this that those optical microscopes are actually quite cost-effective, easy to use and useful things for helping people in the real world. I just had a thought. Some countries allow people to put their own designs on st...

Very interesting, I haven't thought about it from this point of view! What do you think about those differences in illumination power in the context of microphotography? Assuming use of contrast methods in light demanding conditions. Is it worth to take 100W over 30W, sacrifying ergonomics and auto...

Relative to the comparison of 30w vs.100w Recall the intensity is proportional to the square of the distance the lamp is from the object. The 30w lamp is located right under condenser on the DM3000 while the DM2500 has the lamp house mounted on the rear of the scope, some inches away. It would be d...

Thank you for visiting my website - I'm glad you enjoyed it. Life is short and I just want to make the most of it! And thank you for the link to the other thread - lots of interesting optics and engineering discussion about all parts of your DM2500. For a current Leica microscope I would expect them...

Thank you very much for the analysis. I read somewhere on the Olympus website for their current microscopes that they don't recommend using other makers' objectives as those objectives are not optimized for f = 180mm. This implies that the UIS objectives are optimized for 180 mm, although as you sai...

Thank you all for your inputs. Unfortunately I don't have before/after images of the same object at the same magnification that can be directly compared, but I do have separate images from before and after at this link . The images are larger than the size displayed, so you can use ctrl+ or cmd+ to ...

I think I've reached a point where I need a break. There were quite a few interesting things in just one meteorite thin section and they were quite distinct from the terrestrial thin sections, so I decided to move all the meteorite material to its own webpage for those interested in the details and ...

I would love that on my microscope.

I did it yesterday after the flocking tape arrived. https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/n-xC6Rt/Microscopy/i-KMLx9FW/0/d1907795/L/olympus%20BHSP%20microscope%20BH2-MA%20vertical%20illuminator%20reflected%20light%20maintenance%20cleaning-L.jpg Here are some close-ups of the disassembled components of th...

I suddenly thought of Illustrator’s live trace function. You “project” the photomicrograph into Illustrator and it accurately “draws” the image. It’s hilarious how things have changed nowadays. You just press buttons.

I thought it might be nice to have a thread for showing any hand drawings or sketches of things we observe under the microscope, although people probably rarely do this nowadays given the efficiency of digital imaging. To start it off, here's one I made in high school in the 1990s: https://photos.sm...

Welcome and hope you have an enjoyable time here!

What issues are you having with the Leica? I’m curious as I have least experience with Leica among the major manufacturers. I use an Olympus at home.

Just take your time and do little bits here and there. Unless you're going to look at lots and lots of thin sections then it's probably not worth the effort of serious study. Here are some meteorite thin sections - you might be able to match some parts up with the minerals in the examples I include...

Thank you very much for the trouble. I have downloaded them successfully! I'll go digest them! I'm completely swamped with this thin section thing. I don't know how or why I got into this. I seriously need to get my regular meals and bedtime and housework done. Yes sometimes I wish I had an instruct...

Thanks for the recommendations - I'll keep them in mind if I build up my collection of references. For now, I've found that the books, videos, databases and lecture notes available for free online are more than enough for my needs. No single resource has everything but collectively they do seem to c...

No problem! Louise, thanks for the screen snips - please post more if you wish. They will make this thread more interesting and useful! Supposedly I know optical mineralogy but still get confused as minerals in actual thin sections take endless forms that are not often illustrated in micrographs tha...