Technique
and skills are slowly improving. Most of the time I can apply a stain without
making a big mess. I’m still taking pics of everything because looking at them
all - whether good or bad – helps me learn. Remembering to adjust the diaphragm
is still an issue. Need to post a note to myself.
Still
getting most of my specimens from the kitchen. Viewing leaves and stem sections
from vegetables. Focusing the 40x objective is often a problem when the lens is
up against the cover slip. I don’t know if there’s a solution, but I’ll keep
trying.
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| Mite in old Bisquick |
One of my
kitchen specimens came when I opened an old container of Bisquick and found a
layer of gunk on top. Found a mite when I took a sample
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| Fruit Fly Wing |
Fruit fly is
another interesting specimen.
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| Hibiscus Ovary |
Hibiscus
dissection was fun. Internet info gave me a flower diagram and the steps for
the dissection.
A bonus came
from the ghost ants on the bloom I cut.
Made a quick improvised killing jar.
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| Ghost Ant Typically <5mm head to tail |
The small
handheld microscope is especially useful for thick specimens like an ant
because it is overhead illumination.
Illumination from under the specimen shows only the silhouette.
I’ve played
around with polarization with mixed results. My scope does not have a place to
put a filter, so I’ve tried various methods of placing the filters. Polarizing
film tends to have minute scratches – but maybe that’s because I bought cheap
film. I also bought 2 round acrylic filters but haven’t found the best way to
position the bottom one.
Latest
acquisition is a mechanical stage which makes life much easier. I can make tiny
moves to the specimen. Trying to adjust by hand, it was almost impossible to
make fine adjustments.
My plan is
for a quarterly summary with the best/most interesting pics. I photograph
almost every specimen with all objectives and with stains. These are all
documented in my log, but I want to highlight the ones that I especially like. For the first quarter I created a PowerPoint
presentation and then exported that to an MP4 file in order to send it to
others. Here’s the first one.
