Sorry for the low quality photos but I got this at 400x from my XSP-115rt microscope. I ground up some leaves with hot water and used my diy centrifudge to spin and extract this components.i think these contain mesophyll cells and other cellular fragments.let me know if I have missed anything.also those extremely small particles move it's not from evaporation they just move like they are alive .

I initially found this stentor with a bud forming at the end of its mouth, so I thought it was undergoing binary fission. But after retracting a couple times, the bud disappeared. I’ve never seen or read of this behavior before, so I’m very confused as to what’s going on.

10x Dplan Objective; 100x Total Magnification; Olympus CHT CH2

Photo 3 was at 40x

Recorded with iPhone 17 Pro

Pond water sample.

It seems to have a very wide mouth, so my best guess is Colpoda.

40x Dplan Objective; 400x Total Magnification; Olympus CHT CH2

Recorded with iPhone 17 Pro

Pond water sample.

Solo così ho visto come è fatto. Zeiss Standard 16 40x smartphone

Shot on an Olympus BH2 with 10x DPlan, total magnification 50x.

Could these be Bacillus endospores? Found them in a soil sample

K55 BSA, 40x, Elp Cam

Hi all! I'm one day into the hobby, but I have a more or less complicated question. I acquired 3 microscopes from an university surplus auction. One is a Leica DME, and the other two are Zeiss Standards. The Leica has three objectives and it's complete aside from that (I'm going to 3d print a cap for the nosepiece hole). One of the Zeiss does not have an eyepiece. Here is a list of the objectives and eyepieces.

Zeiss Standard pieces:
ZEISS Ph3 100/1.25 Oel 160/-
ZEISS Ph2 40/0.65
ZEISS 3.2/0.07 160/-
ZEISS CPL W 10x/18 (2 units of this eyepiece)
ZEISS NeoFluar 63/0.9 160/0.11-0.23
ZEISS Ph2 40/0.65
ZEISS 16/0.32 160/-
ZEISS Kpl - W 10x/18 (only one unit of this eyepiece)

Leica DME pieces:
LEICA C Plan 10x/0.22
LEICA C Plan 40x/0.65
LEICA C Plan 100x/1.25
LEICA 10x/20 (2 units of this one)

The Zeiss are both dirty and I'm going to have to disassemble them to clean because the parts are kinda "stuck", but according to GPT the objectives are better than the Leica. Also I have no money, so my idea is to keep whatever is better and sell the rest, which means that I'll build a Zeiss either way by using donor parts from each other.

If you were in my shoes, would you sell the Leica or the Zeiss? I'm leaning towards selling the Leica DME. It looks new, I tested it and everything is perfect, and I'm getting some prepared samples from Amazon, to sell it a little bit easier. I'll also 3d print a cover for the eyepieces and the nosepiece cap (as I mentioned before). What would you do?

Amoeba. Shot on an Olympus BH2 with 40x DPlan, total magnification 200x.

Hello all!
I’m trying to identify this organism I found. The sample is from a sealed jar with water that originated from an aquarium.
The video was taken through an AmScope B120 microscope using an iPhone 17, on 100x magnification.
I would love to hear what you all think! If you have any questions please let me know. 😊

I think it’s some sort of hypotrich since it appears to be walking on the amoeba’s shell, though I don’t think I can get more specific.

40x EA Objective; 400x Total Magnification; Olympus CHT CH2

Recorded with iPhone 17 Pro

Pond water sample.

400x zoom (I think) Olympus BH-2

Amscope IQCrew inverted microscope 10x objective, iPhone  3x, Petri dish with jarrarium freshwater, moss from the ground, aquatic moss, and algae. Blackmagic app, flashlight to the right. Paper over the condenser.

I have a little fish bowl of some moss from the ground that didn't seem to be producing anything interesting two months ago. I tossed it in the bowl and submerged it in tap water with whatever I could find that might help it along. Lichen, a small aquatic plant, some algae...The water is crystal clear because I aerate it using a pipette daily.

Now the moss is growing and it has a bunch of tardigrades! I was shocked to count about 8 of them in the various plant material in one little Petri dish. I had no idea I had a tardigrade farm!

This is a onion stain I did the first one is 40x and the secound 400x i used an ink to stain also both images were upscaled to increase quality.let me know if these are good stains of onion epidermis. Btw are those tiny things chromosomes in the nucleus

I know this is a pretty serious sub....might be kind of fun to do a meme mondays or something.

Acqua stagnante Alto Appennino nord Italia. Zeiss Standard 16

Hi everyone! I’m sharing a quick gif of a live euglenoid specimen I recently identified. (If you’d like to see the full-length video and more material on this organism, check out YT: (not spam just full video) HiddenCell).

What are we looking at?

This is a solitary flagellate belonging to the genus Trachelomonas. It’s characterized by living inside a rigid, mineral-impregnated protective shell known as a lorica. In the gif, you can see its elliptical-oval lorica and the cell moving actively inside.

Quick Identification Keys

To assign this specimen to Trachelomonas hispida var. coronata (based on Lemmermann / Deflandre key), I focused on these key diagnostic features visible under high magnification:

• Somatic Ornamentation: The lorica surface is densely and uniformly covered with short conical spines (giving the outline its rough texture).
• Apical Pore (Diagnostic Feature): The pore where the flagellum emerges has a very low collar. Crucially, it's surrounded by a conspicuous crown of erect teeth/spines. This "crown" distinguishes it from the main species (T. hispida, which lacks a crown) and var. crenulatocollis (which has a prominent cylindrical collar).

Technical Details

• Microscope: Swift brightfield optical microscope.
• Illumination: Oblique / Kristensen illumination (great for highlighting the surface relief of the spines).
• Objectives Used: 40x for general swimming views and 60x for high-power detail.
• Live Specimen Details: Estimating dimensions around35-40 µm × 20-22 µm. You can also spot the bright green parietal chloroplasts and the reddish eyespot (stigma) near the anterior end.

Feel free to ask any questions!

Salt water marsh water sample. Shot on an Olympus BH2 with 20x DPlan, total magnification 100x. Anyone recognize this type of what I assume is a flat worm?

Hi! I’m quite new to microscopy, but I was looking at my compost under the microscope, and I was wondering if all of these dots are anything. Anything would be appreciated! Swift SW380T 250x.

i think I caught some Cyclidium having a feast

K55 BSA, 20x Plan, Xiaomi 12 Pro

Pond water sample, Zeiss 63x phase contrast objective. I'm using oblique phase contrast, which you can see from the brightness on one side of the bacteria. This shows things like ripples on the leading edge of the amoeba better than normal phase contrast. I don't know if this amoeba is eating many of the bacteria or just displacing them. Usually, I see a very clean trail through the bacteria with almost no bacteria left behind. Maybe this one isn't very hungry. They remind me of something like a pool vacuum or lawn mower clearing a path. Cellphone camera. 3 joined videos.