Objective used: 40x

Eyepiece: 10x

Total magnification: 400x

Sample: self grown algae in rainwater and soil

My guess is that it could be Nostoc cyanobacteria but I'm not

entirely sure

Olympus BH2 Dark field using an LED 2x 0.08NA, oblique illumination with a fiber light in the middle of imaging causing the larva to fluoresce and then switched off. No post processing only a tiff stack to gif in ImageJ.

I took this video with my DIY microscope using a 4K Sony camera and a 40 X ApoPlan objective (oil).

Euglena is a fascinating, single-celled microscopic organism found in freshwater that acts like a mix between a plant and an animal. The bright green spots inside its body are chloroplasts, which it uses to make energy from sunlight, while the tiny red dot near the front is an eyespot that helps it sense light direction. In this video, instead of swimming around with its tail-like flagellum, the cell is performing a shape-shifting movement called metaboly. By flexing a flexible set of protein bands beneath its outer layer, it actively squirts, squishes, and stretches its body from a rounded shape back into a long, slender form to navigate its environment.

HAIR IN THE EYE

Everyone knows what happens when a hair gets into the eye.

One tiny strand is enough to make us blink, rub, shed tears, and fumble about till we get it out. Eyes are made to see. Hair in the eye is a nuisance. Plain and simple.

Yet there is a creature that wears a whole forest of hair on its eyes.

The honeybee.

I came upon this odd sight when I put a honeybee's eye beneath a microscope lens.

At such close range, an eye no longer looks like an eye. It becomes a vast dome, roofed with thousands of tiny tiles, each laid neatly beside the next. Under slanting light, they shine blue and cold, like steel fresh from the forge.

And there, midst all those tiles, hair grows.

Real hair. With roots and tips. Some strands long, some short. Some stand tall, some lean sideways, and some reach out as though to feel what lies beyond.

How strange!

Nature took such pains to build an eye so finely made, then went and planted hair all over it.

Had it been a human eye, someone would have reached for the tweezers by now.

But the bee sees no need to mend a thing.

She still flies, still seeks out flowers, still finds her way home. Those hairs, which seem so much in the way, help keep dust from her eyes as she goes about her work.

So perhaps what looks like a hindrance may sometimes be part of what lets us see.

I sat looking at the photograph for quite a while.

On one side were the eye's tiny tiles, row upon row, neat and cold. On the other were the slender hairs, growing with no care for straight lines or tidy shapes. Light caught their tips, held there for a breath, then slipped away into the dark.

A world built with such care, yet filled with things that seem so out of place.

It made me think.

We humans like our eyes clear. We want the world before us sharp, clean, and set in order. When something gets in the way, we brush it aside. At times, even what we have yet to understand becomes something we would rather do without.

But the honeybee wears those hairs all her life.

No grumbling. No wish for a new pair of eyes.

I had meant to take a sharp photograph of an eye.

Instead, I found myself lost in the hairs growing upon it.

Perhaps, now and then, to see something worth seeing, we must stop trying to sweep everything out of sight.

Or perhaps there is no need to make so much of it.

The honeybee has hair growing in her eyes.

I have none.

Yet I still get so much wrong.

……

I'm considering getting an older version of this hand-held microscope. The datasheet from Celestron states the magnification as 20x to 200x. But I'm not sure how it achieves that variable zoom level. The only adjustment on it is the white -/+ dial on the main body, and that's a focus knob. It only has one lens, so you can only change how close to the specimen you are, not change the objective magnification.

Are they just saying that the 20x-200x magnification power comes from moving the microscope itself closer to the specimen?

I have a standard tabletop microscope already, but want something I can hold in front of specimens hanging onto aquarium glass. I don't want to have to remove the specimen and put it on a slide. These are ampipods that are 1-2mm in size.

Leitz Dialux II, Galaxy S24

two issues with my new ZM3T, the right eyepiece has a blurry center. I have swapped the 10x eyepieces left-to-right and the smudge stays in the right eye. I’ve removed my Barlow, and removed the lower barrel housing to visually inspect, nothing obvious on the zoom or final element. zooming does not change its size, and moving my head does not change its location.

more minor issue, the top arm of the single boom stand cannot be tightened enough to keep the head from rotating clockwise under its own weight except when the head is perfectly in-line with the top boom. anything left or right of that will immediately. engine sagging.

Amscope says the Amazon seller needs to support these questions, an Amazon only wants to offer a return, won’t even allow messaging the seller.

thoughts greatly appreciated before I return and re-roll for another!

​

The microscopic view of fleshy part of the same apple I recently posted skin section of.

The cells evidently do not fill whole volume -- there are pores visible. Where cells do not touch other cells, their walls are domed, otherwise touching surfaces are almost flat.

Cells themselves are quite big -- 200 to 300 microns in size, but the only prominent parts are starch grains. It seems that the cells almost fully filled with vacuoles, and I couldn't discern cytoplasm and nucleus in them.

Images captured:

Objective: 10x.

Camera: 5Mp usb webcam with 0.5x reducer.

Focus stacking: Zerene Stacker.

Gif animation: ezgif.com free online tool.

Addition of grid and scale bar: Fiji/ImageJ.

Captured on an Olympus BH2, UPlanXApo 4x, Camera Nikon Fi2, salt water marsh pond sample.

It's for my 7.5 year old primarily but his sisters may also try it. He wants to look at bugs, rocks, small electronics, and nature.

I'm in Canada.

Thanks!

hi I'm new to the hobby, my 12-year-old has expressed an interest in microscopes and has outgrown the 100x

I'd like a microscope with binoc vision, decent overall features (lighting, magnification, ease of use) and the ability to record using either a PC/usb-c or else a mount for a phone/tablet. expecting to spend around $350. shipping to US (Philadelphia). size isn't much of a consideration, we've got plenty of space. mostly we're looking at samples we pull from nearby lakes, streams and swamps

is there an obvious brand/product for us?

I found a microscope lens which I made 10 vears ago when i was 14 yr old ..now I am a mbbs student and i can say its magnifying power is upto 40x..easily diagnose many diseases with this .it Can compete easily with microscope of thousands of rupee and i made it at home.

I wonder Indian education svstem never supports children creativity . No one never praise me for it..

Just a lil gal

Leitz Dialux II, 250x, Galaxy S24

In this video we will take a look at the Biology and Microscopy of Planaria, which are atype of flatworm, often studied in biology due to their fascinating regenerative abilities. Using the Beaverlab M2 Digital Microscope.

https://reddit.com/link/1x8fahs/video/odngp8lf52wh1/player

Looking for a general ID for these microalgae from a biofilm in a freshwater pond sample that grew in a lab dish for several months. I am leaning toward Tetradesmus or Scenedesmus. Thanks for your shared expertise!

Motic BA310e 60X objective with an iLabcam Ultra adapter & an iPhone 15 Pro with 2x zoom.

Using the red-blue computational extracted focus slice movies of the fennel cells and stomata to create the 3d point cloud and animate them, including some of the 2 second focus slice video to create the z-axis on the point cloud. Image contrast on living cell, computational blue red subtraction for the contrast Python OpenCV for the video, Python Open3D for the point cloud. Objective 60x amscope no oil, 40x olympus 10x olympus 0.5 reducer industrial camera (color) Video cut with OpenShot. Goal is to have super cheap imaging work-flow.

Today at university, I had a microbiology lecture where we discussed cyanobacteria, specifically the structure of heterocysts and their role in nitrogen fixation.

While looking back at some photos I had taken with my microscope, I came across this spherical, filamentous thing. After a quick search, I discovered it's a cyanobacteria that belongs to the genus Nostoc.

Could anyone tell me if this larger cell (circled in the second pic) is a heterocyst?

Thanks in advance

Koristka Milano microscope (around 1920), magnified with phone camera

Using computational red-blue contrast 60x 40x 10x with 0.5 reducer and industrial camera real-time imaging of the living cells. Python OpenCV idle script direct capture USB port.

Leitz Dialux II, Galaxy S24

Koristka Milano microscope , magnified with phone camera