Adventures in Microscopy - Submit your request!

[Michibacy]

Invested in a new compound microscope for counting, measuring and monitoring bacteria in the microbial inoculant I'm culturing.

I thought it'd be sort of fun to post photos (and requests!) of things to view under the microscope.

I can go from 10x to 1000x magnification (view a mother board all the way down to quite small bacteria).

To start, a house fly's leg at 40x and red blood cells at 1000x with a colored diaphragm (they appear white in the photo)

Feel free to post some requests and I'll be glad to do it, keep it clean, legal and family friend though please. I have flat, and concave slides available, and can perform gram staining for bacteria, and iodine stain to review starches. I'm also thinking of getting the differences between a green leaf, and a dried leaf for comparison. (after all this a tobacco forum...)

Fly's leg at 40x, you can see the individual hairs on it's leg as well as the pores on it's skin.

Red blood cells (from yours truly) at 1000x using an oil immersion objective lens. Left is colored diaphragm, right is washed anti-chromatic filtering to note the indentations on the cell face.

I'm working on building a temporary mount for the camera so it's not quite as foggy/jittery when recording videos. (It's quite interesting seeing the cells move about on their own even under a slide cover)

 

[deluxestogie]

How about a photo of your microscope?

Bob

 

[Michibacy]

I can do that! It's nothing terribly impressive, but it does the job for my usage! I'll grab a photo this evening.

Strike that, I'll get a photo of my set up this evening, for teasers, here's a photo from the website I bought it from:



The camera mount I'm making is just a simple piece of stainless steel sheet (quite thin, 24 gauge I'm guessing) that I will mount to the eye piece tube using stainless steel hose clamps. (one hose clamp through the bent loop and one on top just below the eye piece.

Red arrow points towards where the eye piece is, I'm guessing I'll need to make a small bend to clear the actually eye piece, and I'll put a small rubber bumper between the two. In the 45*-ish bend there is shown, there is a 5/16" hose I drilled for the 1/4" bolt into the bottom of the camera. This allows me to use which ever combination of ocular/objective lens I wish to use, without sacrificing my wallet for a high tech $1000 camera, or magnification/clarity issues I have would have with a cheaper, lower resolution camera.

 

[riverstone]

How about something we see all the time but never really see; tobacco seed!

 

[Michibacy]

How about something we see all the time but never really see; tobacco seed!

Very good idea!

 

[Hasse SWE]

I got a feeling that this will be interesting.

 

[MarcL]

Thank you for the offer. I always wanted to see a lasioderma serricorne face. (tobacco beetle)

 

[Chicken]

That is a cool toy..

 

[Michibacy]

Thank you for the offer. I always wanted to see a lasioderma serricorne face. (tobacco beetle)

Might need you to send me one! I didn't have 1 single issue with any kind of beetle this year!

That is a cool toy..

Thanks brother!

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Could you tell tobacco plants apart by looking at their pollen?

 

[Tutu]

Yeah! Seeds, Lasioderma and Pollen!!

 

[TerrapinFlyer]

That's a cool tool. Discounting your difficulty with the camera, it looks like you're getting good images. I used probably much more expensive microscopes at work. They literally give you a different perspective on the world. Have fun!

 

[Michibacy]

Haven't gotten into looking at seeds yet unfortunately, but I did how ever get to look at some fungi on a raspberry lastnight. Performed a smear on a flat slide, did no heat fixing or staining. Also used the oil immersion to get a clearer view.


The lateral growth at 500X (aperture #8)


Fungal spore at 1000X (aperture fully open)

The camera mount did not work, so I'm stuck with holding the camera. Oh well, worth a shot!

 

[Michibacy]

That's a cool tool. Discounting your difficulty with the camera, it looks like you're getting good images. I used probably much more expensive microscopes at work. They literally give you a different perspective on the world. Have fun!

I'm sure many people have used much more expensive ones Mine is geared towards hobbyists. Mine does lack a fine focus knob, upper illumination and angle-able deck but it suffices for now. If my business truly takes off (that is - in the biologics sector) I would love to invest in something more professional.

It definitely gives you a new take on the world. It reminds me everytime I use it, how something so small can effect something so large (AKA the theory of the Butterfly Effect, The Vocation of Man, Fichte 1800AD)

 

[CobGuy]

Fun!

Working in a laboratory setting for over 20 years, I've seen quite a bit of the micro-world.

At the age of 12 I got my first scope, complete with slides of onion skin, insect wing, crystals, etc. The rest is history!

 

[Michibacy]

Fun!

Working in a laboratory setting for over 20 years, I've seen quite a bit of the micro-world.

At the age of 12 I got my first scope, complete with slides of onion skin, insect wing, crystals, etc. The rest is history!

It's an addicting hobby and I can imagine an even more addictive job. Monotonous I'm sure, but if your job is your hobby you'll never work a day in your life right?

 

[Michibacy]

Well, I wasn't able to make the camera mount, but I was able to make a upper illumination unit. It's not pretty but it'll work just fine. I used a project box, type N coax power jack for conversion sake (I made it with a 20mA white LED with 10* pattern for now, but I may make one with a UV light or other color for hue saturation). I made it flexible by adding some strong wire inside the heat shrink so I can position it.

a 9volt battery will give me about 30 hours of life before changing. At 4.5" stand off distance, 2.57kLUX is available in about a a 1/2" focal point.



and the promised picture of my "work station" at home on the farm in the office.