The Sparrow
Graduate Poster
Thanks Planigale
I just brought a microscope
- Thread starter The Sparrow
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The Man
Unbanned zombie poster
Please don't tell me I bought a piece of crap, I'm still riding the wave of excitement.
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B005TJ5CEG?redirect=true&ref_=s9_simh_gw_p21_d0_i3
I'm excited to do some first hand viewing of natural biology and such.
I've always wanted one since I was a kid. Got a box of prepared slides too to start me off.
Any other enthusiasts out there? Any good forums I should join?
Any tips or ideas?
My Father gave me his old microscope when he bought a new one similar to yours but also with a video display camera. I keep the old one in the truck of my car, it's a very basic model but the optics detach from the stage assembly so it works good as a field micro inspection tool. Which I almost got to use it as on my job just once. A few years back and after working with the new scope for a number of years he offered it to me. With no real need, use or desire for it I recommended he try donating it to the local High School. I'll have to inquire how that turned out.
Hope you get years of enjoyment out of it.
So am I
As you said, looking forward to making my own slides - everything from the wife's aquarium water to the compost pile, and the 2 rivers near by etc etc.
A nice pond and a nice lake are great sources!!!!! If you were near Orlando there are a good number of same and it can be entertaining checking for life form similarities and differences among them. As a just in case, best way to get variety is sample from the bottom, mid-way up the water column and just under the water surface. For starters. (separately, not in the same sample!!)
Seems like a microscope that will give you lots of fun time.
Just some ideas for the future:
You may wish to consider buying a cheap microtome to section thick samples into viewable portions.
Ultimately you may wish to consider buying a phase contrast microscope to allow you to visualize many samples without having to stain them. Many have camera ports as well. One place to consider is surplus/used laboratory equipment. A lot of lab microscopes now are very sophisticated and expensive electronic/optical devices such as confocal, etc. The older, but perfectly good phase microscopes may be hitting the used market at substantially reduced prices.
Just some ideas for the future:
You may wish to consider buying a cheap microtome to section thick samples into viewable portions.
Ultimately you may wish to consider buying a phase contrast microscope to allow you to visualize many samples without having to stain them. Many have camera ports as well. One place to consider is surplus/used laboratory equipment. A lot of lab microscopes now are very sophisticated and expensive electronic/optical devices such as confocal, etc. The older, but perfectly good phase microscopes may be hitting the used market at substantially reduced prices.
The Sparrow
Graduate Poster
Wonderful information and tips. Thanks all.
Fidelio
Graduate Poster
Congrats The Sparrow, you may wish to purchase a telescope to see the macro universe. I have enjoyed both my (crappy 60's high school monocular) microscope and my 1970's vintage Celestron.
Hint, tardigrades. Have fun.
Hint, tardigrades. Have fun.
kookbreaker
Evil Fokker
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It is a decent enough model, just don't let small children fidget with the mechanical stage unsupervised.
Sorry, I am basing this on a similar display model I have in the store.
Sorry, I am basing this on a similar display model I have in the store.
The Sparrow
Graduate Poster
Small idea about microtomes. I heard once that a crude but workable microtome could be created from a large nut and bolt, each with a matching fine thread. Back off the bolt until is is almost readily to fall off the nut, place the specimen in the hollow formed by the nut and bolt, add melted wax to embed the specimen and let the wax cool. Then, by gradually tightening the bolt to slightly extrude the wax/specimen, you can use a razor blade to slice off thin pieces which you can fix on a slide, stain them, and view them through the microscope.
Very, very nice work!
bruto
Penultimate Amazing
That's a pretty clever idea, which I might just have to try one of these days. It ought to work pretty well, especially if you take time to sand a smooth surface on the nut.
I bet you could slice up a fly pretty nicely with that!
The Sparrow
Graduate Poster
Kind of barbaric sounding, but I like it!
Beelzebuddy
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
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That's ingenious! I can offer a couple of tips as well:
- Use a fresh safety razor blade for the sectioning. Sharp, cheap, ubiquitous.
- Slice with a sawing motion, like a deli slicer. You want as little pressure on the tissue as you can manage, to ensure an even thickness.
- Practice, practice, practice. Good hand-sectioning is a thing of muscle memory - the more you do it the better it will turn out.
- Wax (paraffin wax is a common standard) can be removed afterwards with xylene and ethanol.
[ETA] Regarding the highlighted, the tissue should be fixed (treated with formaldehyde or glutaraldehyde) before paraffin embedding, to render it shelf-stable. Otherwise it'll start to decay unless you section and fix it immediately.
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Very good ideas. Even with an expensive dedicated microtome one needs a lot of practice to optimize the sections. The more you practice the better.
Also the fixation can be very critical, depends on the nature of the sample, and there are different ways of doing it. For very soft things like brains sometimes the ideal way is to fix it in place by perfusion before even removing it by dissection (rat brains of course).
Just one minor caution- formaldehyde is considered a low level carcinogen- if you use it, then use it in open air and wear gloves. Formaldehyde is technically the gaseous form, so you will probably a liquid solution (called formalin) which also reduces the risk. Still, when you see what it does to your specimens you will realize that you don't want it to happen to your own cells.
Please don't tell me I bought a piece of crap, I'm still riding the wave of excitement.
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B005TJ5CEG?redirect=true&ref_=s9_simh_gw_p21_d0_i3
I'm excited to do some first hand viewing of natural biology and such.
I've always wanted one since I was a kid. Got a box of prepared slides too to start me off.
Any other enthusiasts out there? Any good forums I should join?
Any tips or ideas?
Looks like a nice student scope.
I can offer a few tips as I have spent a great deal of time looking through microscopes.
Focusing the light source is very important. That is step one. A well focused light source will give you the best image in a specimen such as the cardiac muscle you showed. When viewing something like live protozoans or algae you may see them better with the light source de focused a bit which will give better contrast.
The next most important tip is to always start with low power, focus, then bring the next higher power objective in, increasing magnification stepwise. It is easy to get lost in a very small area a high power. When in doubt switch back to low power for orientation.
A prepared specimen like the muscle you show is typically 10 microns thick. If you look at high power you will see that even at that thinness there are superimposed features in the cells. You will have a hard time cutting anything that thin by hand. Originally soft material was cut at an angle and only the thin edge was viewed.
Soft tissues must be infiltrated with a support medium, most commonly paraffin, in order to section them thin enough to see cellular structures. This is somewhat laborious and does involve the use of alcohol and organic solvents best used under a fume hood.
Mounting 10 micron thick sections on slides without folding and wrinkling them is also a bit tedious. Typically the sections are floated on a warm water bath and picked up onto gelatin coated glass slides, then dried.
Living tissue is pigmented only sparsely with very specific pigments (melanin, hemoglobin and derivatives, chlorophyll) so you can't see much without adding artificial stains. Basically cell components will be basophilic (chromatin), or acidophilic (cytoplasm). Staining is also an involved process if you are looking for a time consuming hobby.
Hard materials (bone, rock) must be ground down thin enough to transmit light and not have too much superposition of elements.
Things like insects are difficult to look at with a compound microscope. These are better appreciated with a dissecting scope as someone suggested.
The easiest things to look at at home are the protozoans which can collect yourself from pond water or a hay infusion. The little critters can be numerous and are of many different kinds. They do not require staining, just a clear slide and cover glass.
O that reminds me, never put anything on your microscope stage unless it is covered by a cover glass ! The objectives are the most critical part of your microscope and you do not want to soil or scratch them!
Correct!! First time I heard of that was in the early/mid 60s in Popular Science or Mechanics.
It is like this one, this is just more precise: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2079475242&pf_rd_i=desktop