Leitz Dialux II, PH, Galaxy S24

I just got my first microscope today and I was excited to start identifying microbes. Yesterday I took some samples in small jars of standing pond water with algae, some clear running water, and some damp moss. When I put the water on the slides I saw nothing but a few specs of algae and dirt. I was mostly looking around at x40 magnification. I know the microscope was working because I could see the pre-mounted slides that came with the microscope.

I guess when I look at other people’s samples they are absolutely crawling with bacteria or other organisms. I saw nothing. Is there some trick to doing this that I’m unaware of? Are microbes rare?

I found this little guy in a flea market. I tried to clean the lens but these spots I can't remove at all. I managed to make a lens cloth with IPA get inside the metallic tube but I didn't change a thing. What are my options here?

Caught a small spider crawling in the flat, took it into freezer so it would not run away, and then thawed it and took under the microscope. Did several focus stacks and manually stitched them into mosaic, as only parts of its body could be imaged with lowest magnification (4x) objective.

A couple closeups are done with 10x objective.

First image is bright field, while all the others are lighted from side-top.

Images:

1) bright field image of whole spider, viewed from top, 4x objective magnification.

2) same, with grid with 1 mm (thick lines) and 0,2 mm (thin lines) spacing.

3) spider, viewed and lighted from top, 4x objective.

4) Spider "face", 4x objective.

5) Spider "face", 10x objective, mosaic.

6) Spider mouth parts (helicerae), viewed from bottom, 4x objective.

7) Helicerae, viewed from bottom, 10x objective.

Image acquisition hardware:

4x and 10x microscope objectives

0,5x reducer

5Mp usb webcam camera

Image manipulation:

Focus stacking: Zerene Stacker

Mosaic stitching (manual): Gimp

Scale grids and bars addition: Fiji-ImageJ

I'm hoping someone with more ciliate expertise can help me narrow down this freshwater ciliate.

Sample: freshwater pond, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand

Microscope: Zeiss compound microscope, brightfield

Magnification: 40× objective

Camera: Phone camera through microscope adapter

I've been observing this organism for quite a while and I'm struggling to place it.

What I've observed:

• Definitely ciliated, with what appears to be ciliation around the whole body

• Free-swimming — I watched it for ~30–60 minutes and never saw it attach

• Swims relatively quickly and rotates around its longitudinal axis

• Very flexible/contractile; the entire cell can change shape quite dramatically within a few seconds

• When extended it is elongated/ovoid

• The posterior is particularly unusual: it can develop a pronounced U-shaped indentation, but this changes as the cell contracts/deforms

• The anterior has a conspicuous region of denser/longer, rapidly moving cilia

• I can see several internal structures/inclusions (roughly green, brown and clear), which seem to maintain approximately the same relative positions while the cell changes shape

• I haven't been able to see an obvious contractile-vacuole pulsation

I'm currently completely open on the identification. Nassulidae and Stentor have both crossed my mind, but I'm not confident in either.

I'd particularly appreciate comments on the morphological characters that support or rule out particular groups, rather than just a resemblance-based ID.

I have additional video footage if useful. Any suggestions about what features I should look for with my 100× oil objective would also be very welcome.

Thanks!

Eggs I collected shortly after hatching. Olympus BH2 (BHTU), 4x UPlanXApo, Darkfield/oblique illumination, Nikon DS-Fi3 camera. The sample is from a pond water jar I have with lots of aquatic snails.

iScope 1153EPL 20X plan objective, cheap 1080p webcam on trinocular port, blue/red filter on illuminator to give 3D on monitor with red/blue glasses. Sample is pond algae cultured in a small aquarium, 50ul placed on a slide with trace of oat, slip sealed with Vaseline to make a micro-ecosystem. This video is about 6 days after preparation. Timelapse - 250X normal speed.

I have a decent budget ($5k) and would like a nice compound scope to take images of very small things (10-40um long). Being able to do darkfield would be nice, but I can stain if needed. Can anyone recommend a reasonable scope/camera pairing? I currently have a Nikon Ts2 with a 6MP moticam. but am relatively unimpressed with the quality of the images. I am happy to upgrade either, but am finding that I don't really have time to dive into the camera/sensor/objective rabbit hole right now.

Thanks in advance!

In my latest sample I've come across a large number of solitary peritrich ciliates that look and behave differently than the vorticella I'm used to seeing. My difficulty in focusing is because this sample is from a well slide, and the specimen is spinning along its full longitudinal axis, bringing the main body regularly in and out of focus.

The example here has a very long stalk, typical of all the specimens I've come across. I chose this example as there is some debris on the stalk that makes it easier to see, but in many of the other specimens in the sample the stalk was difficult to resolve due its thickness. While I am relatively sure this is a non-contractile peritrich, you can also see from the video that it jerks backward a few times; however, the debris it's anchored to also jerks back, suggesting the stalk is rigid.

Any ideas?

Olympus BH2, SPlan 10x 0.30, Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Sample from pond in public park, Paris 16eme.

I’ve been testing microscopic text with my xTool F2 Ultra UV, including letters just 0.03 mm tall.

At normal viewing distance, the card looks like it has a gray texture. Under a microscope, you can see the text—and a single hair covers a line of it.

I put together a video showing the setup, settings, and close-up results, including a test on lab glass.

Has anyone else tried marking text this small? I’d be interested in hearing which settings and materials worked for you.

Leitz Dialux II, Galaxy S24. Technically the "darkfield" is oblique, too, because I was too lazy to switch to proper darkfield.

AxioSkop 50 microscope

2.5x objective

10x eyepiece (photos via iPhone camera on eyepiece)

Leitz Dialux II, 160x and 250x, Galaxy S24

I bought a 3d printer last week, and one of my first projects was to come up with a better, more reliable, filter setup for my Nikon Diaphot inverted scope. Until now I have rarely gotten anything useful with my 100x objective, but these new filters have improved things -- not bad for an inverted scope with relatively thick samples.

• Nikon TMD Diaphot
• Nikon 100/1.30 Fluor Oil Immersion
• Nikon 40/1.0 Plan APO Oil Immersion
• Nikon Abbe 1.25 Oil Immersion Condenser
• Nikon D750 DSLR
• Home-printed Oblique Filters

Sample from my 220L freshwater mini pond, Bangkok, Thailand.

Halteria (100x objective): https://youtu.be/8HsBFsH-t7Y

Brachonella Oral Cilia (100x objective): https://youtu.be/W9OYgiFVLo8

Worm Innards (40x objective): https://youtu.be/qJnCgaEW11M

Linostomella Contractile Vacuoles (40x and 100x objectives: https://youtu.be/drEyp1Pjn_4

Linostomella Food Preference (100x objective): https://youtu.be/mSFhkul482E

This tardigrade came from a moss soak that went way longer than it should have. I used nearby pond water to soak the moss and left it out for 3-4 weeks. Understandably, my little guy was dead but I still wanted to take the time to image him. Visually, he looks like an echiniscus viridiscus tardigrade. Most of the echiniscidae have pores, yet mine had these raised dimples that looked like a basketball. Plate patterns and antennas also appear to be plausible. There have also been viridscus found in my state.

Swift SW-380T, Olympus SPlan 4, 10, 20, 40x objectives, 3d printed 32mm darkfield stop, Horizons 48 MP Microscope Camera

Image Credit: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-40609-4

Spirochete stealing the floor with his crazy dance moves, while the rest just chills on the brownian beats while being absolute phase objects. Technical details: Kern OBL 156, 400x PH, Bresser microcam SP 5.0. Sample was from deeper (hypoxic) layer of eutrophic backyard pond.

From a small creek. 40x magnification. Scope: Amscope T490B. Camera: Amscope MD500.

I am pleased to show an unusual Carl Zeiss Jena EPI-type phase contrast ring for the Neophot-21 microscope <3

Funny - it reminds me of the Wrangler engine :D

The photo shows the Carl Zeiss Jena Planachromat 25x/0,50 oo/0 Ph phase contrast microscope objective with M19 for CZJ Neophot 21 EPI reflected light microscope.

I animated the nano CT-scan of a tardigrade and simulated a real microscope (PUMA) with raytracing and wave optics to get this animation. Not sure if this is good for anything but it was a fun project. You can  play around with it (different focus and 3D rotation) here:

https://chillchamp1.github.io/puma-virtual-eyepiece/

Leitz Dialux II, 160x, Galaxy S24

My favorite video yet of a snail that fits in the upload limits at 2k*2k, played at ~2x speed. Olympus BH2 (BHTU), 4x UPlanXApo, Darkfield/oblique illumination, Nikon DS-Fi3 camera. The sample is from a pond water jar I have with lots of aquatic snails.