Amscope M600A Bacteria 1

The new microscope has landed and NR is obsessed! Here, for your consideration, is a demo of the Amscope M600A monocular biological microscope using a modified Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 attached to the 'scope (without the eyepiece), using the 100x objective with immersion oil. The subject is a sample of stagnant dishwater with at least two species of bacteria populating it in various stages of cellular division.

Any questions on how I did this, what problems I faced with it and overcame, etc, are quite welcome.

Much more to follow! :-)

- NR417

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Amscope
• M600A
• Bacteria
• 1

[DanFrederiksen]

surprised that bacteria can be seen. at micron size it's close to light wavelength. are you using UV light?

[NightRunner417]

@DanFrederiksen Nope, not UV. That would require a UV sensitive imager btw which would be quite hard to find. I'm pretty sure that back when I did this one i was still using the stock incandescent bulb illuminator, nothing special. Nowadays, I have modified the illuminator so that it uses a single high power white LED, and removed the blue glass filter from the condenser as well. It works GREAT, its even a little more clear than the stock was, and almost no heat at all.

[RyanatorML2000]

Thanks for the information! Too bad my oil is solid... Do you know how this could have possibly happened?

[NightRunner417]

Argh, last minute addition... I just opened my new immersion oil I bought from Online Science Mall (type b high viscosity), and on the bottle it says odorless (it's true!) and stable, non drying. The results are lovely, I'll be posting a new video of a microorganism with and without the oil so you can see how badass it really is. :-)

[NightRunner417]

Having said that, however, it occurs to me that it would be possible to post a sort of a "magnification key" with or in the video. Say if my magnification on MY end worked out to be 1500x with a real image format of 18.5"x11.75", then I could submit that information and the end user could do some simple ratio based math to figure out what magnification they are seeing on THEIR end when they watch the video on YouTube. This would work for everyone despite great differences in setups.

[NightRunner417]

@MrCrowley45 That's an excellent solution, and brilliant but ONLY if you never divert from one fixed setup both in camera and display. The very second you upload your results to Youtube, your figures change dramatically for each separate person that views, based on their display setup which you can never hope to know. Therefore, if I do all this, say at full screen on my current setup, then commit a mag figure to the video, it will still be way wrong at the viewer end.

[MrCrowley45]

@MrCrowley45 - If 0.7 pixels = 1 micron at 10x and a red blood cell is 300 pixels in diameter in a photo taken at unknown magnification, divide 0.7 by estimated magnification (2400x would be 24) and then calculate 0.7/24 = 0.0291. Then calculate 300 x 0.0291 = 8.73 which is the diameter is microns. If this is too large/small for a red blood cell, adjust the magnification and calculate again until it fits. Read the June 2011 online microbehunter magazine, it describes most of this process

[MrCrowley45]

I've watched all your videos with your microscope and noticed you've been estimating the magnification due to using your camera. I found a good way to find the magnification was to take a photo of something you know has a fixed size like a red blood cell. Using the guide in the Microbehunter magazine of June 2011 about measuring sizes under the microscope, you can find the magnification. see my next reply

[DanFrederiksen]

@NightRunner417 I believe cmos sensors will respond down to 300nm UV. not sure about glass and lenses though

[planetrob555]

Yes, I remember way way back when I had a decent scope. It was very cool discovering the different "levels" of existence. I would watch things swim up into focus, then dive down out of focus. The micro world, the same as the macro one, is fascinating.

Please, make and post more vids! They are interesting and educational.

[NightRunner417]

An addtional note... Online stores like Online Science Mall and Home Science Tools have multiple types of immersion oil for purchase and the prices are great. Possibly you could try out the high viscosity type, which I believe is supposed to have a longer useful life.