Accidental meet with a microscope...

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Glider
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:58 am

Accidental meet with a microscope...

Post by Glider »

Hello to everyone. I'd like to introduce myself and share with you my little story.
I am a total stranger to microscopes. I was never interested in them and thought they would be something boring to deal with... until I had a trip to an antique mall with my family.
We walked into one store and I noticed a small antique Baush and Lomb Binocular microscope. It was just beautiful looking old piece and I knew instantly that I need to buy it. I love old tools and machinery and this one would look just great on my shelf. I did not care if it was working (and assumed it doesn't). The price was 120 US$ and now it was mine.
When I came back home and cleaned the dust from it, I sat it aside and admired how it looks (it looks much better in person). When I decided to take a pick through it, I placed some small objects under its objectives and started zooming in. The image was perfect, but the alignment of the lenses was messed up. It was doubling the view. As a craftsmen and a jeweler by trade, I decided to take it apart and see if I can fix it (I thought I can't make it worse). After about an hour of careful dealing with tiny screws and little levers inside of the prism column I managed to adjust the image to an absolutely perfect alignment. Fortunately the scope is very simple but well made apparatus. You can see it here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs1QrOS6TnE
When we placed some vegetable skins under its lenses before my eyes exploded a new world. Beautiful, full of colors and intricate designs of God. With three objectives of 10x, 40x, and 100x (oil immersion) I was trying to see as much as I could through it. Special immersion oil was purchased and few more eyepieces along with some filters (I still know nothing about them, or other items that came with that at bargain price). I began to film what I see on iPhone (just placed it over the eyepiece) so I can view it later. Shortly, I started posting them on youtube.
I am absolutely amazed at what I see through my old microscope and I can be only jealous at many of you, who see the beautiful forms of life using your superior equipment. The pictures at this forum are stunning!!!
I am happy at what I have and only would like to ask what else I can do to see better (or more) with my scope. It's and old piece (dated "patent 1915") and make many of you smiling right now, but if I can use some filters or adapters with that, I'd like to know that. It's probably limited due to its age, but it has a slot for filters under its condenser. I am not sure which one will work with it.
I am glad I've found this forum and already appreciate to all of you for many interesting post I have already viewed here.
Best Regards to all!

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Glider, welcome aboard! I am indeed smiling right now, but it is only because I sense your delight at becoming acquainted with this world of small things. :D

First, let me say that you have done very well so far. I am pleased to see that the condenser iris and the stage controls operate smoothly. They are often stuck with old hardened lubricant, and can be damaged easily if forced or disassembled carelessly. Getting the head realigned was an excellent piece of work. Shooting video with iPhone through the eyepiece is a well respected technique, called "the afocal" method". It is often recommended for old scopes because of the way the eyepieces and objectives were designed to work together.

Having looked at several of your videos, I have two main suggestions.

First, play with the iris diaphragm of your condenser to learn what effect it has on image quality. Closing the diaphragm will darken the image but most importantly it will give you more depth of field but if closed too far will make the image blurred. Opening the diaphragm will brighten the image, give you less depth of field, but if opened too far may lose contrast. Generally the best position is somewhere in the middle, but finding the best spot is a matter for experiment. Even different people looking at the same subject will disagree what setting is best.

Second, for additional things to look at, consider pond water. You can find the most wonderful profusion of little beasties swimming around and clinging to surfaces. Occasionally there are brightly colored diatoms and algae to look at. If you get the right kind of plants, then you can see very rapid "cytoplasmic streaming" within the cells when you expose them to bright light. All of this is eminently suited to recording video.

Above all, keep having fun!

--Rik

Glider
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:58 am

Post by Glider »

Thank you Rik for reply.
I will try to get to some pond for samples. I live in desert type zone and it's somewhat of a challenge... Instead, I want to prep some organisms with "funnel" technique I read about on this forum.
The scope is in very good mechanical condition. I was very surprised how smooth and well lubricated everything was.
Taking pictures with an iPhone right now even easier. I got a very nice adaptor from Amazon that works like an eyepiece as well. It's attaches to the phone and has lenses inside that equal to a 16x eyepiece (my favorite). You remove the scope eyepiece and just fit this thing over the tube. The beauty of it is that you can zoom with it to a full screen view in your phone. Before, I had to do it in the additing app. I used it in my video#15 on YouTube.
One of the puzzled topics to me is filters. I know about existence of Absorption and Interfirence filters. Is any of those can be used on my microscope? What kind of effect they produce? I see in the imeges at this forum different effects and also gray/black backgrounds. Is it done with these filters? I have a box of filters I bought recently. Few colored and just gray looking. I have to post it in general forum so people can help me identify them.

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