u/Vivid-Bake2456

I think this week I’ll try to put up a Tardigrade video each day from many different microscopes, from a very inexpensive, $70 inverted microscope to one using a $4000 plan apo objective. This way, everyone can see how different they look with different quality microscopes. To me, even though you can get a better image from an expensive microscope, you can still see pretty much every common organism with the cheapest microscope and enjoy the hobby with one.
This video today is using an Amscope T490 that retails for under $500 , 20x achromatic objective and a cellphone camera. The tardigrade is from a lichen sample soaked in water.

As soon as I put the sample in the petri dish, this larva started collecting debris and building itself a home. This is about 30 minutes of work starting with no home at all.

Nikon Eclipse TS100 inverted microscope, pond water in a petri dish, 4x objective, Amscope MU2003-BI 20mp camera. Reflected Rheinberg type of illumination.

Yesterday was in phase contrast. Today, you can see stalk and body in oblique illumination. Freshwater sample, Olympus 40x objective, cellphone camera.

Freshwater sample, Zeiss 63x phase contrast objective, cellphone camera with 2x zoom. Trying to focus on the vorticella stalk

Before taking photos,  I like to check the camera view with the illuminator off. When using a cellphone,  I've found three points that can allow stray light to possibly reduce contrast.  One is the gap between the cellphone and eyepiece.  Second is light entering the eyepiece of the microscope.  Third is the gap between the objective and the slide. 

The easiest solution is to only work at nighttime or a windowless room and turn off all of the lights in the room. This is pretty necessary for fluorescent microscopy.  If you work at home with lights on, you can block some of the areas the excess light is entering.

Here are some pictures through the eyepiece with the illuminator off with no stray light remediation in a normally lit room, and after blocking as much light as possible. 

Microscope is a Meiji-Techno MT5310 that has a trinocular head and a slider to give either all of the light to the eyepieces or split it between camera and eyepieces.

Sample is a nevus at 12.5x magnification using a 1.25x objective and 10x eyepiece.

Photo 1. Main illuminator off , cellphone camera on

Photo 2. Room light

Photo 3. Windows and room lights

Photo 4. Blocking around the eyepiece and camera lens area

Photo 5. Blocking around the objective

Photo 6. Blocking the eyepieces

Photo 7. Photo before blocking stray room light no camera zoom

Photo 8. Photo after blocking stray room light no zoom

Photo 9. Photo after blocking stray room light 2x cellphone camera zoom

I’m not sure if it adds much information that bright field doesn’t, but I like to at least try oblique illumination for different specimens along with bright field views. Here are some oblique images of tardigrades taken with different microscopes , Zeiss, Nikon and Meiji techno, and at mostly around 160x to 200x with a cellphone camera.

Freshwater sample, Olympus plan apo 40x objective, cellphone camera. Video screenshot and cropped, closeup view. Oblique illumination using a solid stop in a rotating filter holder.

I found this dead and dried dragonfly in our office's parking garage, so I took it home and took some pictures of it under a stereo microscope. MOTIC Ecoline T30 stereo microscope with 10x, 20x,and 40x magnifications.

Here’s an old unmarked slide I have. It looks like an abscess in an intestine or colon. I’m not a pathologist so just guessing.
Meiji Techno microscope. 12.5, 40, 100, 200 and 400 times magnifications. Cellphone camera. I put NSFW because I don’t know if it is human or not.

EdIT: I must edit this and say that the lymphoid follicles present in the villi are Peyer's patches. They are mostly found in the distal 25cm of the ileum. Humans only have a total of about 100-200 of them and the numbers peak between ages of 15-25 years old and slowly decline in number afterwards. You can read our discussion in the comments. Thanks to angrydoo for identifying these correctly.

Freshwater sample in a petri dish, Nikon TS100 inverted microscope, 10x objective, cellphone camera. Yesterday, I showed one way of doing reflected illumination with just a small flashlight. Here is a video of a mite made using that method. At the end of the video, I show the effects of adding some transmitted light from the main illuminator.

I use one of these EDC rechargeable flashlights positioned upwards under the stage. You can do pure reflected or a combination of reflected and bright field. If you put in a blue filter in your filter holder, you will get a blue background colour and white specimen colour. For an upright compound microscope, you simply shine an auxiliary lamp from the top of the stage onto the specimen. This works well with objectives lower than 40x but is hard to do with a 40x because of the short working distance.

Included are some reflected illumination photos taken with my different inverted microscopes, a tardigrade with a pot belly, a blue water mite, and a fly mouth.

Freshwater sample, Iqcrew inverted microscope, 20x objective, cellphone camera. Nice relaxed behaviour in a petri dish. Sorry about the dirt on the phone adapter eyepiece. There are a couple views of the mouth in focus. The little, inexpensive inverted microscope works perfectly well for the larger, most popular organisms.

Freshwater sample, Iqcrew inverted microscope, 20x objective, cellphone camera. The same one from yesterday at higher magnification and trying to see the mouth better.

Freshwater sample, Iqcrew inverted microscope, 10x objective, cellphone camera. I'll soon share other videos of this ciliate calmly floating around in a petri dish. You never see them acting this way on slides.

Most amateur microscopists enjoy seeing living organisms in water samples. If you have an upright compound microscope, but don't have any inverted microscope and can't afford an expensive one, you may want to at least consider getting one of these very inexpensive inverted microscopes. In the USA, it is only $71.99. They are the least expensive new inverted microscopes sold, and after a few inexpensive upgrades, they work much better than you might expect.

Obviously, it is nice to see every last detail of a specimen, with the maximum resolution possible that an upright compound light microscope allows, but sometimes, it is also nice to see the more natural behaviour of the organisms. I often see organisms behaving much differently in a petri dish than the same ones on a slide. Plus, you can go back to the same petri dish over several days or longer to watch the organisms. This is good reason to own an inverted microscope, along with a quality, upright compound one. (Plus a stereo microscope and a travel/field microscope). 😄 The more microscopes, the merrier.

If you ever buy an expensive inverted microscope, your little one will still be very useful as a travel/ portable microscope. I've taken one to Europe, Asia, the Middle East and USA, plus out in the ocean to look at fresh plankton samples.

You can see it being used on many of my posts on Reddit and the group about it on Facebook.

Here is what you can see with the lowest cost,$70 USD, inverted microscope, and about $30 of additional upgrades and accessories, diaphragm, and cellphone adapter for taking pictures. They are great first microscopes for children because of how easy they are to use and can also be used for viewing prepared slides, but samples in petri dishes, water samples, rocks, insects, plants, sand, are their forte.

Stentors;

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JxUdV9hhq/

Rotifers;

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CHSdDsKuX/

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DavkE4wxj/

Gastrotrich;

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/188yGr1qUy/

Welcome post, many pictures;

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14TW3p455RQ/

80 pictures;

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DJJSPavaQ/

Freshwater sample, Iqcrew inverted microscope, 10x objective, cellphone camera.

Often, they are frantically searching for the exit when you first put them in the petri dish. This one has settled down after a while, and it was very calmly moving around.

This is a version of Rheinberg illumination. A blue filter in the filter holder of the main illuminator and white LED flashlights for oblique illumination.

Here is something I’ve never read or heard about, so I don’t know if it is an original thought or I just didn’t search enough. If you ever want to measure something precisely for making something like a phase annulus for a phase objective , a COL stop, or a Rheinberg filter, you can use this measuring device to measure how large the diameter needs to be for these things. I’ve successfully made phase annuli using this tool. It works best with a centering telescope which I’ve made a previous post about how to make one from two cheap 10x eyepieces.
You simply punch holes a mm apart in a sheet of paper and cut it out the diameter of the filter holder you will use for your different filters. Make sure you focus on a slide first to have your objective the proper distance from the slide that it will be working at and adjust your condenser to the correct position that it will be in use.

I use the clear plastic from food packaging and black electrical tape to make various filters for my filter holders. You can put a strip of matte Scotch tape on one for a diffuser. Sometimes, you need extra diffusion on low magnification objectives to even out the illumination. I often try oblique illumination because it gives a very different look than bright field does. Included are a few oblique views of things like a nematode,amoeba and a rotifer.

These are the coeruleus stentors that I found in my daughter's aquarium in January. I took them home and divided them up among several containers. I give them a grain of rice once in a while and some of my aquarium water. With many inverted microscopes, you can remove the condenser to put large containers on the stage. These glass coffee jars have a flat side that I can see through with my 4x objective to check the health of the cultures without removing anything. It makes me happy to see healthy looking stentors doing well. I leave the lids on loosely for air exchange when not looking at them sideways. Nikon Eclipse TS100 inverted microscope, 4x objective, and handheld cellphone camera photos.

Freshwater sample, Iqcrew inverted microscope, 20x objective, cellphone camera