Microscopy for fun

[TBRS1]

Too cold for outdoor fun, so I'm taking the fun inside.

Microscopy, the art of looking at things under a microscope, does that.

I bought a used microscope ($35) and this little gizmo that attaches my phone to the microscope (about $30. It comes with a Bluetooth camera shutter release):



You have to fiddle with it a bit, but it works better than a purpose made camera (it also works with binoculars and telescopes).

Here's a butterfly antenna:

I have prepared slides to look at, and a variety of color filters and light blocks that fit into a tray under the microscope stage:

They allow me to do stuff like this (slide of human skin with hair follicle):



This is how it looks without any filters:



Of course, much of the fun in using a microscope is hunting for microbes. It's a lot like bird watching - you want to see a lot of different critters, although everybody has their favorite, like tardigrades, or hydra, or diatoms. Personally, I like algae.

 

[Angular Chap]

This takes me back, I had a microscope as a kid, a gift from a neighbour who’s daughter didn’t want it. It was a full kit with pre-prepared slides, kit and instructions on how to prepare your own, immersion oil, methylene blue and a variety of specimens, including a silkworm.

I remember looking at salt, sugar, other crystals, hairs, plant cells, and insects from the garden. I also remember following the instructions to prepare a slide to view skin cells from the inside of my mouth.

I ended up as more of a computer science guy rather than getting into biology, but I still had a huge amount of interesting fun nonetheless.

 

[FayetheAspie]

I LOVE using a microscope and doing photography as well. So far though I don't have the equipment for combining the two.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Nice. I have a stereo microscope that I use for insect identification. In my previous work I enjoyed doing Transmission Electron Microscopy. The hardest part for me was in developing skill at using the ultramicrotome.

 

[TBRS1]

This takes me back, I had a microscope as a kid, a gift from a neighbour who’s daughter didn’t want it. It was a full kit with pre-prepared slides, kit and instructions on how to prepare your own, immersion oil, methylene blue and a variety of specimens, including a silkworm.

I remember looking at salt, sugar, other crystals, hairs, plant cells, and insects from the garden. I also remember following the instructions to prepare a slide to view skin cells from the inside of my mouth.

I ended up as more of a computer science guy rather than getting into biology, but I still had a huge amount of interesting fun nonetheless.

I had one too. I went into art and ended up making forged & enameled jewelry.

My designs were very organic, and loosely based on microscopic stuff. Funny how life goes.

 

[TBRS1]

I LOVE using a microscope and doing photography as well. So far though I don't have the equipment for combining the two.

If you have a phone and a microscope, I can recommend the attaching gizmo. They're called "universal cell phone adapters," and are fairly inexpensive.

 

[TBRS1]

Nice. I have a stereo microscope that I use for insect identification. In my previous work I enjoyed doing Transmission Electron Microscopy. The hardest part for me was in developing skill at using the ultramicrotome.

You were big league. My microtome is hand held and uses a straight razor (yes, an actual folding straight razor like my granddad used) for slicing.

If I could only have one microscope, it would be a stereo microscope. There are so many things like insects to look at.

Everything little thing looks awesome when you make it look big.

 

[FayetheAspie]

If you have a phone and a microscope, I can recommend the attaching gizmo. They're called "universal cell phone adapters," and are fairly inexpensive.

I do have both a phone and a microscope. Thank you for the suggestion.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

You were big league. My microtome is hand held and uses a straight razor (yes, an actual folding straight razor like my granddad used) for slicing.

If I could only have one microscope, it would be a stereo microscope. There are so many things like insects to look at.

Everything little thing looks awesome when you make it look big.

Standard lab microtomes are little more than straight razors with mechanical feeds. I also did a lot of tissue sections embedded in paraffin. I also performed a lot of autoradiography. I would inject an animal with a radioisotope labeled metabolite, harvest tissue, fix, section and stain the tissue on slides; then I would coat it with a photographic emulsion and after some exposure time develop the emulsion layer to see which cells had incorporated the metabolite.

Some features of insect larvae are very microscopic. Even with a half way decent stereo microscope I still have a hard time with Caddisflies.

 

[Jeff T]

Wow! Takes me back to my childhood.
One Christmas, our parents asked what we'd like for presents. My much older brother wanted a good telescope. This intrigued me. I decided on a microscope. We were a science-oriented family.
Had hours of enjoyment looking at all sorts of things. Practically all of it on the 75x setting, as the 300x and 600x were too blurry to be useful. One of my favorites was to put a tiny drop of HOT salty water on a slide, and watch the crystals grow as it cooled off. I imagined the growing pyramids were an expanding meso-american or egyptian civilization....
One night my brother came into the house, upset that the clouds interfered with a particular celestial happening. I suggested a microscope for unfettered viewing on substandard nights. He was not amused.

 

[TBRS1]

Wow! Takes me back to my childhood.
One Christmas, our parents asked what we'd like for presents. My much older brother wanted a good telescope. This intrigued me. I decided on a microscope. We were a science-oriented family.
Had hours of enjoyment looking at all sorts of things. Practically all of it on the 75x setting, as the 300x and 600x were too blurry to be useful. One of my favorites was to put a tiny drop of HOT salty water on a slide, and watch the crystals grow as it cooled off. I imagined the growing pyramids were an expanding meso-american or egyptian civilization....
One night my brother came into the house, upset that the clouds interfered with a particular celestial happening. I suggested a microscope for unfettered viewing on substandard nights. He was not amused.

The pyramids of salt crystals was one of my favorites!

I'm gonna do that one again!

 

[Nitro]

Here at the Museum of Oddities, we try not to disappoint.

My A C Gilbert collection includes two examples.

 

[Nitro]

Not to be outdone by those, this API unit followed me home.

I hope handing over $6.99 for her wasn't a mistake

 

[TBRS1]

The mere mention of "Gilbert" makes me salivate. I spent my childhood formative years going through the Sears Christmas Catalogue getting smudgey finger and nose prints all over the Gilbert science section.

That's a super sweet microscope. I bet it is just as good as when it was new - new, it was probably about $200 - 300.

$6.99 is a great price, even for a used Mic. When I find a deal like that, I always buy them, clean them, and resell them for about $50.

(I also keep the best ones for myself .)

 

[Nitro]

The mere mention of "Gilbert" makes me salivate. I spent my childhood formative years going through the Sears Christmas Catalogue getting smudgey finger and nose prints all over the Gilbert science section.

That's a super sweet microscope. I bet it is just as good as when it was new - new, it was probably about $200 - 300.

$6.99 is a great price, even for a used Mic. When I find a deal like that, I always buy them, clean them, and resell them for about $50.

(I also keep the best ones for myself .)

That unit is still fetching 200-300 used


My Gilbert collection is loaded with some fine examples.

The airframe was constructed of Erector set parts to display my new old stock 1960 Gilbert .11 nitro fueled model airplane engine.
The leftover parts from that build allowed me to build this front engined digger dragster:

My Erector set collection dates as far back as 1929 and I have a set from 1959 that was never used.

In all, I think there are over a dozen of the builder sets with the latest one being from the late 1960s.

 

[Nitro]

That unit is still fetching 200-300 used


My Gilbert collection is loaded with some fine examples.
View attachment 139404
View attachment 139405
The airframe was constructed of Erector set parts to display my new old stock 1960 Gilbert .11 nitro fueled model airplane engine.
The leftover parts from that build allowed me to build this front engined digger dragster:
View attachment 139407
My Erector set collection dates as far back as 1929 and I have a set from 1959 that was never used.

In all, I think there are over a dozen of the builder sets with the latest one being from the late 1960s.

 

[FayetheAspie]

Much of my science equipment came from Nature's Workshop Plus.

 

[TBRS1]

Much of my science equipment came from Nature's Workshop Plus.

I was delighted to discover that there are "nature" stores in large cities that sell science stuff.

I've never understood why or how people loose their natural love of science as they get older. Growing sounds like a drag. I'm glad I never did it.

 

[FayetheAspie]

I was delighted to discover that there are "nature" stores in large cities that sell science stuff.

I've never understood why or how people loose their natural love of science as they get older. Growing sounds like a drag. I'm glad I never did it.

We ordered from their catalog rather than shopping at the actual store. It is kinda neat that they have an actual store location though.

 

[TBRS1]

This is one of my favorite microscopes - an inverted microscope:

It works perfectly. I've had to invent projects just to use it.