Microscopes anyone?

[Bob]

Anyone use a microscope to examine the life in their seawater that a
magnafying glass alone won't reveal?

Any recommendations as to magnification and scope manufacturers?

Tanks,

Robert

[Jaime R-S]

Any optical micro will do unless you want to become a microbio which I still
recommend ebay...

jrs
"Bob" > wrote in message
...
> Anyone use a microscope to examine the life in their seawater that a
> magnafying glass alone won't reveal?
>
> Any recommendations as to magnification and scope manufacturers?
>
> Tanks,
>
> Robert
>
>

[exotec]

Unless you're hoping to see bacteria, the appropriate choice would be
a "stereo microscope", also commonly known as a "dissecting
microscope". This would enable you to see things like copepods and
amphipods and things just slightly too small for the naked eye.
There's one up for auction at the moment on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NIKON-PRECISION-STEREO-MICROSCOPE-W-STAND-JAPAN_W0QQitemZ7555325310QQcategoryZ11813QQrdZ1QQc mdZViewItem

I'm sure if you search on "stereo microscope" you'll find plenty more.
I like Nikon optics, but Olympus is also a good maker. I'm using my
'scope for lab work tho, so other makers I have no experience with may
well be perfectly acceptable for your use.
Good luck!

On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:35:09 -0700, "Bob"
> wrote:

>Anyone use a microscope to examine the life in their seawater that a
>magnafying glass alone won't reveal?
>
>Any recommendations as to magnification and scope manufacturers?
>
>Tanks,
>
>Robert
>

=^..^=
.... the problem with people these days is that
they've forgotten we're really just animals.

[Jaime R-S]

I aggree, a little expensive thou!

"exotec" > wrote in message
...
> Unless you're hoping to see bacteria, the appropriate choice would be
> a "stereo microscope", also commonly known as a "dissecting
> microscope". This would enable you to see things like copepods and
> amphipods and things just slightly too small for the naked eye.
> There's one up for auction at the moment on eBay:
>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/NIKON-PRECISION-STEREO-MICROSCOPE-W-STAND-JAPAN_W0QQitemZ7555325310QQcategoryZ11813QQrdZ1QQc mdZViewItem
>
> I'm sure if you search on "stereo microscope" you'll find plenty more.
> I like Nikon optics, but Olympus is also a good maker. I'm using my
> 'scope for lab work tho, so other makers I have no experience with may
> well be perfectly acceptable for your use.
> Good luck!
>
> On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:35:09 -0700, "Bob"
> > wrote:
>
>>Anyone use a microscope to examine the life in their seawater that a
>>magnafying glass alone won't reveal?
>>
>>Any recommendations as to magnification and scope manufacturers?
>>
>>Tanks,
>>
>>Robert
>>
>
> =^..^=
> ... the problem with people these days is that
> they've forgotten we're really just animals.

[Wayne Sallee]

If you are going to get a microscope, you might as well
get a good one, instead of getting a toy, and wishing you
had spent a little more money. Here is a good one that you
can be pleased with, not overly fancy, but hight quality
that will meet all of your needs.

http://www.novainstruments.com/model_detail.php?model=744

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Bob wrote on 10/24/2005 2:35 PM:
> Anyone use a microscope to examine the life in their seawater that a
> magnafying glass alone won't reveal?
>
> Any recommendations as to magnification and scope manufacturers?
>
> Tanks,
>
> Robert
>
>

[Wayne Sallee]

And then to see prices go here:
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=nova+microscope+744&num=100&hl=en&newwindow=1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Wayne Sallee wrote on 10/25/2005 10:48 AM:
> If you are going to get a microscope, you might as well get a good one,
> instead of getting a toy, and wishing you had spent a little more money.
> Here is a good one that you can be pleased with, not overly fancy, but
> hight quality that will meet all of your needs.
>
> http://www.novainstruments.com/model_detail.php?model=744
>
> Wayne Sallee
> Wayne's Pets
>
>
>
> Bob wrote on 10/24/2005 2:35 PM:
>
>> Anyone use a microscope to examine the life in their seawater that a
>> magnafying glass alone won't reveal?
>>
>> Any recommendations as to magnification and scope manufacturers?
>>
>> Tanks,
>>
>> Robert
>>
>>

[Wayne Sallee]

On second look, I don't like that one. Don't get one with
clips that go over the microscope slide, instead get on
that has a graduated patform that holds the slide from the
sides, and has a nob that you turn to move the slide
around, like the following:
http://www.novainstruments.com/model_detail.php?model=992ES
It's not a good picture, but there should be other places
on the web with better pictures.

Here is a better picture of what I am talking about:
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/6162/cid/1662


Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Wayne Sallee wrote on 10/25/2005 10:56 AM:
> And then to see prices go here:
> http://www.google.com/search?as_q=nova+microscope+744&num=100&hl=en&newwindow=1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images
>
>
> Wayne Sallee
> Wayne's Pets
>
>
>
> Wayne Sallee wrote on 10/25/2005 10:48 AM:
>
>> If you are going to get a microscope, you might as well get a good
>> one, instead of getting a toy, and wishing you had spent a little more
>> money. Here is a good one that you can be pleased with, not overly
>> fancy, but hight quality that will meet all of your needs.
>>
>> http://www.novainstruments.com/model_detail.php?model=744
>>
>> Wayne Sallee
>> Wayne's Pets
>>
>>
>>
>> Bob wrote on 10/24/2005 2:35 PM:
>>
>>> Anyone use a microscope to examine the life in their seawater that a
>>> magnafying glass alone won't reveal?
>>>
>>> Any recommendations as to magnification and scope manufacturers?
>>>
>>> Tanks,
>>>
>>> Robert
>>>
>>>

[Tidepool Geek]

> Anyone use a microscope to examine the life in their seawater that a
> magnafying glass alone won't reveal?

Hi Robert,

I volunteer at a small public aquarium and the microscopes are among
our most popular exhibits. We've got a couple of dissecting scopes for
the public to use and a compound scope which is hooked up to a small TV
camera and 'operated' by a member of the staff.

Our dissecting scopes deliver 10X or 20X magnification (switchable) and
this is fairly common for this class of scope. There are some on the
market that go as high as 30X or even 40X but, as may become clear
later in the message, that's not necessarily a good deal.

20X is usually plenty of magnification to see and identify most of the
larger phyto and zooplankton - diatoms, diatom chains, copepods, and
various kinds of larvae. Smaller stuff, like dinoflagellates, protists,
rotifers, etc. are basically going to be indistinct dots. OTOH: We
frequently switch down to 10X in order to gain a wider field of view
because some of these little beasties swim fast enough that it's hard
to keep them in frame at 20X. Higher magnifications obviously make that
situation progressively more difficult.

FWIW: We've found that the only satisfactory viewing with a dissecting
scope comes from having the subject(s) illuminated simultaneously from
both above and below.

If you want more power then you have to step up to a "compound"
microscope of the sort that Wayne recommended. Generally these have a
turret of objective lenses that give 40X, 100X, 400X, & 1000X (1000X
isn't really practical for the sort of stuff we're interested in).
These scopes can show you some amazing things but there are specific
considerations to be taken into account. First, you'll need at least
10X magnification in order to wrangle a single specimen onto a
microscope slide. Second, most zooplankters are too big to be displayed
on a flat slide; make sure to get a few slides with depressions for
examining things like copepods or larvae. OTOH: When you're looking at
the small stuff, you're better off with flat slides since you'll be
using a higher power with a much shorter depth of field. Slides are
fairly robust and should last quite a while with reasonable care but,
unless you've got a laboratory supply house in your neighborhood, lay
in a lot of slide covers. These things are so fragile that you can
break one with a hard stare - I don't think we've ever fired up the
compound microscope without breaking one or two of these things.

If you decide to get a compound scope then definitely do as Wayne says
and get the movable stage option. Most of the things you'll probably
want to look at will be constantly swimming out of frame and a movable
stage is really the only practical way to keep up with the little
buggers.

Regardless of which type of scope you choose the most important
consideration has to do with what you want to look at and to what
lengths are you willing to go to do it. If you're interested in
mid-water plankton you'll need to concentrate your sample or you
probably won't find much of anything. Here's an example: The northeast
Pacific ocean has some of the highest plankton densities on earth and
that's where our facility is located (Port Angeles. WA). In late spring
through mid summer the plankton is so thick that SCUBA divers often
report visibility of three feet or less. In spite of that, if we just
went out on the dock and dipped out a liter of water I doubt that we'd
have more than a handful of organisms in each 20cc sample that we put
under the scopes for the public to view. What we do is to take a
plankton net to the dock and drag it through the water for 5 to 15
minutes such that we've concentrated the plankton from several hundred
gallons of water into one liter. Google up some pictures of plankton
nets and I'm sure you could come up with a design for a miniature
version - perhaps using a non-disposable coffee filter.

OTOH: If you're interested in the denizens of your DSB you've got a
different problem. The density of life in and on the sand is probably
fairly high but if you can't separate the animals from the sand you
won't see them (or at least not very well). The sand will block
virtually all the light coming from below the sample and substituting
extra light from above doesn't seem to work. The only solution that
comes to mind at the moment is to use a technique analogous to panning
for gold - the difference being that you're interested in collecting
the lighter material that hopefully contains the animals.

Finally, if you're not interested in plankton sized animals, a
dissecting scope can show a ton of otherwise hidden detail in things
like barnacles, sponges, bryozoans, and even some cnidarians. If you're
willing to do some pretty finicky preparation, a compound scope could
show you some pretty amazing stuff about various filter feeding worms
and maybe even individual nematocysts from anemones or corals.

Magnifically yours,

Alex

[Melvin Robinson]

I picked up a used Zeiss compound microscope from one of the people on
the Yahoo microscope group. I went with one that does phase contrast,
and recommend that feature to anyone considering a scope for live
microorganism viewing. I have spent hours looking at stuff from both
my marine and freshwater tanks. Each level of the tank and each
surface has a different group of creatures. There are really amazing
things in these tanks.

Mel

On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:35:09 -0700, "Bob"
> wrote:

>Anyone use a microscope to examine the life in their seawater that a
>magnafying glass alone won't reveal?
>
>Any recommendations as to magnification and scope manufacturers?
>
>Tanks,
>
>Robert
>

[Roy]

I myself like to look at things you can't readily see with the naked
eye. Even giving a copepod a close up look is very interesting. So
while its not a necessary piece of equipment for a marine tank setup
like it is in diagnosing problems in a koi or gold fish environment, I
do find myself using it a lot on my fw and sw tanks just to see things
normally unseen.


On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 06:45:50 -0600, Melvin Robinson
> wrote:
>><>I picked up a used Zeiss compound microscope from one of the people on
>><>the Yahoo microscope group. I went with one that does phase contrast,
>><>and recommend that feature to anyone considering a scope for live
>><>microorganism viewing. I have spent hours looking at stuff from both
>><>my marine and freshwater tanks. Each level of the tank and each
>><>surface has a different group of creatures. There are really amazing
>><>things in these tanks.
>><>
>><>Mel
>><>
>><>On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:35:09 -0700, "Bob"
> wrote:
>><>
>><>>Anyone use a microscope to examine the life in their seawater that a
>><>>magnafying glass alone won't reveal?
>><>>
>><>>Any recommendations as to magnification and scope manufacturers?
>><>>
>><>>Tanks,
>><>>
>><>>Robert
>><>>

--
\\\|///
( @ @ )
-----------oOOo(_)oOOo---------------


oooO
---------( )----Oooo----------------
\ ( ( )
\_) ) /
(_/
The original frugal ponder! Koi-ahoi mates....

[miskairal]

You're sucking me in. Like I really need to spend more money on this :)

Melvin Robinson wrote:
> I picked up a used Zeiss compound microscope from one of the people on
> the Yahoo microscope group. I went with one that does phase contrast,
> and recommend that feature to anyone considering a scope for live
> microorganism viewing. I have spent hours looking at stuff from both
> my marine and freshwater tanks. Each level of the tank and each
> surface has a different group of creatures. There are really amazing
> things in these tanks.
>
> Mel
>
> On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:35:09 -0700, "Bob"
> > wrote:
>
>
>>Anyone use a microscope to examine the life in their seawater that a
>>magnafying glass alone won't reveal?
>>
>>Any recommendations as to magnification and scope manufacturers?
>>
>>Tanks,
>>
>>Robert
>>
>
>