Obessing Over the Small Stuff

[errantember]

After several weeks of research, I just ordered a new microscope. I'm going to use it for biological specimens related to Permaculture, like soil testing, insect identification, compost testing, and to gain a better understanding of my own health and body. I'm also very interesting in teaching kids about Permaculture, and I think the microscope would be a great way to get them excited about it.

The microscope has magnification from 40X-2000X, powerful enough to see anything from ants to bacteria, binocular eyepieces for better viewing, and a camera port to allow me to take digital pictures and show the subject on a projection screen or television without having to stop looking or refocus. It's also expandabe to add features like darkfield and phase-contrast to be added further down the road.


I've learned on hell of a lot about different kinds of microscopy along the way. One of the major discoveries was that modifying a microscope to see the subject on a dark background instead of a brightly lit one, called darkfield microscopy, is fairly easy. All one has to do is to block the incoming light with a disc of the correct size. This discovery saved me $100, as that's how much a darkfield light condenser costs. I'll try to make my own first, and if that doesn't work out, I can still buy the condenser later down the road. Using a dark field make it much easier to see details that aren't visible in normal (lightfield) microscopy for a fairly low cost, unlike something like phase contrast microscopy, which at least triples the cost of the scope, since many parts, including all of the objectives, have to be replaced.