What I do in my spare time....

[specious_reasons]

I've discovered microscopy as a hobby. I treat it like nature photography, only really, really tiny. I'm learning that I have more enthusiasm than skill, but have been improving, and I love to share the results.

Since I'm relatively new here, is this the best forum to post them?

This is a summary result from this evening's efforts. A radiolaria:

[Ensign Steve]

Neat!

[beyelzu]

welcome to the ff, specious, and placement is fine, though it would be more appropriate in the making bey feel guilty for just masturbating during his free time instead of something cool like tiny nature picks forum.


it i under construction

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by specious_reasons

I've discovered microscopy as a hobby. I treat it like nature photography, only really, really tiny. I'm learning that I have more enthusiasm than skill, but have been improving, and I love to share the results.

Since I'm relatively new here, is this the best forum to post them?

Sure. I think it would fit in Lifestyle ('cause it's a hobby) or A&L ('cause it's purty) too, but that's just a testament to how interesting it is.

This is a summary result from this evening's efforts. A radiolaria:

That is awesome. It reminds me of a Hydrangea. What sort of equipment do you use? Does your microscope have a camera built-in or did you rig it up?

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

That is awesome. It reminds me of a Hydrangea. What sort of equipment do you use? Does your microscope have a camera built-in or did you rig it up?

Here's the setup I'm currently using:

My current workstation is the dining room table, which means I setup and tear down every time I use the microscope.

The microscope is a Labomed CxL with the LED lighting option. It's a standard 160mm tube length DIN microscope, which means it's good for compatibility with older microscopes, (1950s-present, usually), but there's a newer standard which it's not compatible with (modern objectives are focused to infinity, not to a fixed tube length).

The camera is a Canon Rebel XS, with a microscope eyepiece adapter I found online from MicroscopeNet.

The netbook is a toy I picked up a little while ago, and I thought it might be fun to use it to control the cameras. So far, so good. It also made me mobile, so I can set up just about anywhere now.

The Ursula candelabra is strictly optional.

Most of the pro and semi-pros have much more elaborate setups. Possibly the one thing I regret most is not getting the trinocular head - binocular eyepieces for you, and a 3rd for the camera, so I wouldn't have to switch out my eyepiece every time I wanted a picture.

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by beyelzu

welcome to the ff, specious, and placement is fine, though it would be more appropriate in the making bey feel guilty for just masturbating during his free time instead of something cool like tiny nature picks forum.

Speaking of which, I've been consistently non-committal on the question that naturally comes to mind. My answer is you will never see a picture of my little swimmers.

[fragment]

But you have looked, right?

That's a cool hobby. I've surprised myself by really enjoying some of the microscope work in my studies. Where was the radiolaran from? What other stuff have you been looking at?

[slimshady2357]

Nice pic

Good to see you here specious

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by fragment

But you have looked, right?

That's a cool hobby. I've surprised myself by really enjoying some of the microscope work in my studies. Where was the radiolaran from? What other stuff have you been looking at?

This radiolaria came from a sample I took from the pond nearby my workplace, in the Chicago suburbs. That sample is what I've been looking at for the last few weeks. I also frequently pull water from my local pond (also in the suburbs), or a lake in Michigan where we have relatives.

I'll typically get about 4-8 oz of water, along with some dirt and algae from the bottom of the pond. I do 2 things, usually. I'll either look to find small animals or plants that might yield interesting results, or I'll just use a pipette to suck up a small amount of dirt and water and survey the results to see what I find. The above picture was from just looking around.

There have been other projects. I have a plan a some point in time to figure out why my animal's water dishes have so many damn rotifers in them

[Adam]

The microscope adapter for the camera is twelve different kinds of awesome.

[livius drusus]

Ooh! Ooh! Do a dust sample from under the bed.

[Pinecone]

Microscope with camera!

[Qingdai]

That is cool. I didn't know cameras for microscopes were available for the general public.

Samples from the inside of dishwashers were interesting when I took microbiology.

[godfry n. glad]

I say 'way kewl'...

I'd say you're in the right place...although, the Cloaca forum might be a better place for some, and, as already noted, Sexuality forum for others.

[ChuckF]

That is pretty fucking cool.

Originally Posted by Qingdai

Samples from the inside of dishwashers were interesting when I took microbiology.

Do not want.

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by Qingdai

That is cool. I didn't know cameras for microscopes were available for the general public.

Samples from the inside of dishwashers were interesting when I took microbiology.

Depends on what you mean by "available." Everything has its price

Actually, the adapter, which I consider adequate for my needs was only ~$100. All I needed was an SLR camera, which somehow I convinced my wife was good thing to have in general.

[Qingdai]

I thought they were in the millions, or for landed gentry.
Although, if I recall correctly, it was a Victorian fad to take make microscope pictures of some kind.

Ah, this is what I've seen, http://www.victorianmicroscopeslides.com/slideexb.htm

ChuckF, Cascade auto-dish soap users had no bacterium present, FYI.

[Deadlokd]

That is beyond twelve types of awesome. I'm doing biomedical science at the moment and during res schools microscopy is one of my favourite activities.

Coincidentally one of the first things I looked at under a microscope was pond water from Rockhampton Qld, and one of the first things I saw was a radiolaria.

I'd love to have a decent microscope and a camera setup would be priceless.

[specious_reasons]

Something odd happened to my sample. I think as a result of the insect larvae and snail eggs hatching, my algae-filled sample became a barren wasteland.

Some small plants started growing, though, and this is what I have to share today.

This is one of a series of pictures I took last night:



Here's a very good stack of 29 images, the stem of the small aquatic plant:

[livius drusus]

OMG cells! This so brings me back to 9th grade bio.

[Ensign Steve]

This so brings me back to last month bio.

Anyway, fucking awesome.

[biochemgirl]

I love the last pics. There's something about being able to see the individual cells while still seeing a larger part of the organism that is just beyond cool to me.

I use both a regular microscope and a flourescent microscope all the time but it never gets lost on me just how cool it is.

[S.Vashti]

One word. Tardigrades.

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by Chris Porter

One word. Tardigrades.

I have not yet found one, but I also have not specifically been looking...

[-FX-]

Originally Posted by specious_reasons

I've discovered microscopy as a hobby.

Are you still doing this?

I find looking at almost anything under a microscope is one of the most fun and amazing things in the world.

Originally Posted by specious_reasons

I have not yet found one, but I also have not specifically been looking...

FYI some researchers found out how they can survive almost anything.