u/Vivid-Bake2456

I captured it between two halves of a petri dish and looked at it with a stereo microscope. Afterwards, it was released outside. I guess that it is some kind of orb weaver spider . Motic K-500 stereo microscope and cellphone camera used. It was moving around quickly, so it made it very hard to video or take photos. This is the best I got of it. Someone suggested that I don't like stereo microscopes. I do, but use them less than my inverted or upright microscopes.

I often put a storage box on different microscopes to store extra things like objectives, filters, diffusers, light bulbs, and polarisers that are particular to that microscope. If your microscope has a flat arm on it, you can use double-sided tape and attach an appropriate size box on it. Here , on this Nikon E200, I store a 100x and 1.25x objective in the box.

Here is an old R.J. Beck student microscope from 1896 that has 3 objectives and 2 eyepieces. Here, it is used to view some prepared slides from Amscope, a pine stem, bee mouth parts, onion epidermis, and rabbit testes. The objectives are not plan , so are sharp only in the middle. The objectives aren't coated, so contrast is not as high as with modern ones, and the eyepieces have narrow fields. Even so, the microscopic world was very accessible to anyone who had enough money for a microscope even then and long before.

Here is an inexpensive and easy to make, high capacity air filter. Just some HVAC filters, duct tape, and a box fan. I also have a smaller HEPA filter, but it doesn't have to work hard with the larger one clearing the majority of particles from the air. I run it when I'm in the room, and my movements would stir up any dust. With it, I don't see any dust particles in the sunbeams coming through the window, and the optics stay very clean.

Freshwater sample in a petri dish, Nikon Eclipse TS100 inverted microscope, 10x objective, 2x cellphone zoom. Lots of growth in a petri dish a couple of weeks after adding a single grain of rice.

I just realised that the quality of viewing the uploaded videos depends upon the phone used to view them if you are using a phone for viewing. Here is my recent video on an iPhone on the left and a mid range Samsung on the right. The iPhone was much sharper.

Freshwater sample, Zeiss 63x objective, 2x cellphone zoom, so 1260x magnification if viewed on a cellphone screen. Oblique illumination

Freshwater sample, Meiji-Techno 5310, 1.25x, 4x, 10x, 20x, and 40x objectives, 2x cellphone zoom, so 25x, 80x, 200x, 400x and 800x magnifications if viewed on a cellphone screen.

Freshwater sample in a petri dish, Iqcrew inverted microscope, 200x, cellphone camera, oblique illumination

Freshwater sample, Iqcrew inverted microscope, 40x cellphone camera, blue/ white Rheinberg illumination. That one small worm had a very full intestine. I'm sure it felt good to empty it out.

Freshwater sample with a grain of rice in it. Zeiss plan apo 25x objective, cellphone camera, oblique illumination

Fishpond sample, Zeiss 6.3x objective, cellphone camera

A demonstration of variable Rheinberg illumination using a multiple light source. It is variable because you can adjust the intensity difference between the direct and indirect lighting. I vary the illumination during the video to demonstrate this.

Freshwater sample, Iqcrew inverted microscope, 100x, cellphone camera.

Iqcrew inverted microscope, 100x, cellphone camera, freshwater sample. The biology slows down the movements of the vorticella.

400x bright field video, Nikon TS100 inverted microscope, cellphone camera. Freshwater sample

I'll upload other videos made in phase contrast with this microscope and other magnifications made with another microscope in future posts. Drawing from David Seamer is in the comments.

Freshwater sample, Meiji-Techno 5310 microscope, 40x phase contrast objective, cellphone camera

Freshwater sample in a petri dish, Nikon Eclipse TS100 inverted microscope, 20x objective, cellphone camera.

Lots of organisms growing in a petri dish a week after feeding the freshwater sample in it two grains of rice. Nikon Eclipse TS100 inverted microscope, 4x objective, cellphone camera.

Freshwater sample in a petri dish. Nikon Eclipse TS100 inverted microscope, 20x objective, cellphone camera. If you know what it is, please say.

Freshwater sample, Iqcrew inverted microscope, 200x, cellphone camera.