Optics Blog: Microscope for fun: Thoughts and reviews of binoculars, telescopes, scopes, sights, and much more - birdwatching, astronomy, target shooting - pretty much anything related to optics, nature, and life!

Microscope for fun

One of the things I used to enjoy doing when I was teaching science and I had a spare moment (very rare) was to grab a dissecting (stereoscope) microscope and look at anything and everything with it. Dissecting microscopes provide an upright and correct right-to-left image and are relatively low powered compared to conventional microscopes. On the other hand, no need to make a slide when observing with one of these scopes. Just stick any object at hand on the tray and start observing!

It's amazing how different things look at even a modest 20-40x magnification. Rocks, twigs, plant parts, insects, soil, cloth, newsprint, jewelry, circuit boards, computer chips, small machine parts all take on a different personality when magnified. You haven't really seen the fangs on a spider until you've seen them at 40x!

Lately, I've been thinking of starting a new hobby - studying and collecting rocks and minerals. Not that I need an excuse for adding another instrument to my optical collection, but I do think the LOMO SF-100T would be a great choice for this hobby. With the SF-100, I can magnify all the way up to an amazing 100x. Best of all, I can even take pictures of all those amazing things.

Now all I have to do is get that spider to smile.

Read Post | 5:41 PM

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Posted by

Anonymous : 11:11 PM

I have some small machine parts, screws in particular, that could use some different personality. If the Lomo SF 100 T can really impart some personality, to small machine parts, send me two.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Microscope for fun

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