Update – Making Progress

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.

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

Fruit Fly Wing

Fruit fly is another interesting specimen.

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.

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.