Very nice and simple setup that appears to give excellent results. I will also agree it is good to see other people doing this work. I am learning to do this with beetles because as with moths it can be very definitive.

Scott

My apologies for taking so long to follow up on this. Work consumed all of my time this week. I took everything off of the stand, took the base off, took the illuminator apart. Put it all back together and it seems to have solved the problem. I can't tell you what I changed or fixed but it is workin...

I will try to grab a photo, I will swap condeners but I am not sure if the lights will be bright enough to tell and none of my other stands is configured for an external light.

I recently aquired another Bausch and Lomb Balplan Microscope with a parabaloid condenser for darkfield. When using the scope for darkfield I am getting a bright flare on one side that looks a little like astigmatism. I can not seem to isolate where the flare is coming from. It's not my eyes I had s...

Perhaps it is fat that has seeped out. I think TheLostVertex has your answer above. It is amazing how much can fat/oils can come out of an insect. I have been collecting a representative sample of local beetles and I let my mounts set above paper for several weeks before moving into trays for this ...

Really good explanation of diffraction. This impacts our macro photography as well. Any time you introduce an edge anywhere in the optical path energy goes out into those diffraction spikes. The way the energy moves into those diffraction spikes is also impacted by the quality of the optics. From as...

There is a larger version of this image on my flickr photo stream (www.flickr.com/shog) but I didn't put larger ones up. I will when I get back home, I am at a conference this week.

Scott

Three stages of the Thistle Tortoise Beetle - Cassida rubiginosa. The larva with the fecal ball, pupa, adult. The larva and adult were pretty tough to photograph they were quite quick. These are uncropped images with minimal process. All three are the same scale as well. D7000 with 55micro nikkor on...

I wanted to post something I just learned in case someone comes along later. There's definitely another lens assembly that is required. I took things apart and there is a lens inside the trinocular head. You can see it where is at in this image. http://lrak.net/secret/Balplan/balplan/img/fig_3_5-2.j...

>>Something odd here. (At least based on the photo you posted showing no tube at all on the trinocular port.) Are you accounting for the ~46mm depth of a Nikon SLR body (lens mount to sensor)? Charles not sure what you are asking. I could not get an image to form above the trinocular port. Removing ...

If it helps I use optical slaves all the time and they work quite well indoors. I have been totally amazed at how few misfires I have had. I have found them more reliable and less bulky than inexpensive radio slaves indoors. Also if you are on a tight budget I picked up a couple of old used Nikon sp...

Rik thanks for the tip on the correct search word. I had a chance to play a bit more and by juggling parts, eyepieces, and the camera ( would have been nice to have three arms today) I got the image of some onion skin below. Given that is a crappy slide, everything was moving around, and absolutely ...

Got a chance to spend some time with this and unfortunately the image forms about 5 mm inside the trinocular head. So I'm going to have to find something to reach down there and bring the image up to the camera. The eyepieces don't seem to be correcting for color however they may be correcting for s...

Thanks Charles I read your paper and it confirms some of my thinking. Now on to your question camera wise either a d7000 or a d200 I have both bodies available, so Nikon DX sensor. I don't currently have a phototube and there is a lot of room to play with so I can likely get the camera to the focal ...

I just scored an Older Bausch and Lomb Balplan for next to nothing. It has really pleasing visual views so I thought I might attempt some photomicrography with the trinocular head but I am having a hard time figuring out what I need to purchase. Has anyone been down this road before me ? I would lik...