Carl Zeiss Axiostar Plus Beginner Question

[Kalisto]

Hey gals and guys,

I was gifted a Carl Zeiss Axiostar Plus by a friend that has been used in a lab environment. Why? I guess its because im the type of peron who gets really excited about that kind of stuff even though im not a biologist or chemist (I studied IT). So I have this really fine microscope that im really excited to use. It hast the following optics: 2 10x18 eye pieces and 10 x 0.25, 20 X 0.45 and 40 x 0.65 objectives. As far as I know this microscope was used in the textile industry to assess the chemical safety of fabrics (I have cleaned the acid stains off of the stage and clips as best I can). I really want to use it to have a look at bacterial and fungal cultures that are found around the house and maybe on the human body (mouth, nose etc), looking at blood cells would also be really interesting. Now my question is: what kind of of objectives would I need to look at bacteria and blood cells (from my limited understanding I would need to use oil immersion slides and objectives). What kind of magnification would I need for that? Are micoscope objectives standardized? (if I buy a an objective (used) what do I need to check to make sure it fits my Axiostar Plus revolving nose piece?)

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Here is the link to the accessories of my microscope from the Carl Zeiss website: https://www.micro-shop.zeiss.com/en/de/ ... &cId=10052

Greetings
Kalisto

[jb89]

Kalisto,

Welcome to the forum!

I am also out of my element a bit but love microscopes, I am studying geology but love looking at biological specimens (especially live)

I can't give you much advice regarding your questions but I think you may be in need of different illumination techniques as opposed to just needing objectives.


Bacteria/blood cells/ etc are very small and even with nice microscopes you're not going to see a ton of detail
I would recommend looking at some pictures of little creatures in darkfield, you might enjoy that more, just a thought!

Other members here will be able to help you a lot more than I can!

[MicroBob]

Hi Kalisto,
congratulations to this nice microscope! If it has been used around acids the coatings of the lenses might have sufferd, I would recommend to carefully check the surfaces. The objectives might be for incident light use - can you show us pictures of Microscope and objectives? To add objectives you would have to stick to this line of Zeiss objectives, not cheap since it is a quite new system. There recently was a thread were use Apochronaut show excellent images that showed what you can see in bacteria slides, and what not. Blood slides profit a lot from proper staining which is possible to do at home but not really worthwhile for a one time use. I attach a photo taken from a Pappenheim stained blood slide.
Very interesting beginner objects are found in concentrated plancton. When you scrape off a piece of wood or a plant stem in a pond and put this under a cover slip you will find lots of interesting life forms.

Bob