Quote:
Originally Posted by jjjnettie
I've been keen to purchase a decent microscope for a couple of years now. I figure a glass of pond water will keep me happy for days imaging all those little critters. 
Could you pm me with any recommendations for a suitable set up? please |
I will get back to you as soon as I can, regarding the microscope.
(could take a couple of days).
The first thing you become aware of when looking at "bio" things is the extreme complexity of organisms.....I probably have the equivalent of three units of university biology, but I keep asking myself "what the hell is that?" when I look at organisms.
A lot of organisms
don't want to be seen (they hide!!), especially those in the soil, so you have to build simple apparatus to extract them! (Also, preparation of specimens can be extremely important, so as to be able to see some types of critters.)
A stereo microscope that gives magnifications in the range of 10 to 150 power will be all that you need, as the high power instruments are a bugger to use....tiny depth of field, so you have to prepare specimens and make slides;
and in any case, really tiny things like cells and bacteria don't show all that much detail unless the specimen is prepared in a specific way.
In contrast, Fungi and arthropods and single-celled animals are quite large, and don't require a lot of specimen preparation. So they are
extremely easy to see in a good-quality stereo microscope.
My stereomicroscope has two "tubes" for the eyes, plus a separate tube for the camera; you can photograph or make a video while you are looking! (a "trinocular" microscope)
cheers, Robert