There are microscopes which look like a regular compound microscopes but have an LCD screen instead of eyepieces and can also have their images sent to a computer.

There are hand held microscopes in which a slide can be placed; these must be attached to a computer.

There are microscopes which can be placed on top of the object to be magnified and are also connected to a computer.

And there are hand held microscopes which have an LCD screen and need no computer.

Supposing you already have a microscope and wish to make it digital: Add an eyepiece microscope camera. As long as your microscope is DIN standard an eyepiece microscope camera will fit.

Posted by Robin P at 12:35 PM Read Article 0 comments

Monday, November 21, 2011

Educational Gift

This year your kids are old enough to want a gift they can learn from, a microscope. A good compound microscope will teach the skill of microscopy. Digital microscopes are great fun but unless there are eyepieces to look through the student is not learning how to use a microscope. Microscopy is a skill they will need if they are to go on to study the biological sciences. With a microscope you get what you pay for. The optics in a microscope will determine the price. Other important features are a fine focus, not just a coarse focus; a light source, not just a mirror; and a mechanical stage, not just clips. Binocular (2 eyepieces) is preferable to monocular

all other things being equal. A trinocular microscope will be great if the student would like add a microscope camera to save the images. If a trinocular is beyond your budget choose a DIN (standard) microscope and a microscope camera can be exchanged for the eyepiece. A good microscope will be an investment which will last many years.

Posted by Robin P at 2:44 PM Read Article 0 comments

Monday, November 14, 2011

Bug Microscope

It's that time of year again. You are looking for a gift that will last over time and be useful for many years to come. You are tired of plastic toys which are discarded a week after the Holidays. A stereo microscope or

a dissecting microscope is the perfect gift for that young scientist in your house. A stereo microscope lets you look at rocks and bugs and stamps and coins and anything else you want to look at up close. A stereo microscope is good for young eyes because it produces a 3 dimensional image and does not reverse the image like a compound microscope(for slides). Make sure that the microscope you purchase will last and will be easy to use and it will serve your student for years to come.

Posted by Robin P at 2:09 PM Read Article 0 comments

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Microscope Slides

Plain or frosted, polished edges or ground edges, beveled corners or not and prepared or blank. Microscope slides are the essential required accessory that you must have in order to use a compound biological microscope. Slides are typically made of soda lime glass or borosilicate glass but the trait that they share in common is that a good quality slide will be optically "flat". What this means is that the thickness will not vary across the width and breadth of the slide so that it will be visually detected. The so-called standard slide is 75 mm x 25 mm and nominally 1 mm thick. These dimensions will be maintained within a micron or two and will never cause any distortion in the image of the sample or cause the microscope objectives to lose parfocality. High quality prepared slides will also adhere to these same dimensions. There are specialty slides such as those used in geology and petrography, but the issues remain the same in terms of getting quality samples. The only time flatness is not an issue is when the various forms of depression slides are used to make suspension preparations.

Posted by Jack at 5:35 AM Read Article 0 comments

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Phase Contrast Microscopy

There are many techniques that are used to enhance images in a compound biological microscope. One of the most common as well as one of the most useful is phase contrast. This technique was developed by Frits Zernike (a Danish physicist) in the 1930's and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1953 for this significant contribution to the field of optics. As light passes through a medium of varying density, a phase shift or contrast change occurs as a result of the retardation or slowing of the illuminating wave front. Z ernike developed a method to take advantage of this change. It allows one to view cells in liquid suspension without the addition of stains or other chemical additives that might alter the nature of the sample. The image may be further enhanced with the addition of a green filter since this is the color to which the human eye is most sensitive. This remarkable change in contrast is easily appreciated in the included illustration of two epithelial cells. A microscope equipped with phase contrast allows sample viewing in both brightfield and phase without any additional specimen preparation. Common applications of the phase contrast technique include the examination of spinal fluid, urine, naturally occurring water sources and any other solution in which suspended particulate matter is suspected or needs to be evaluated..

Posted by Jack at 5:32 AM Read Article 0 comments