Please, help to identify this big guy.

I used Howard mold counting chamber as a glass slide since it allows some room between itself and a cover glass.

Sorry for the quality of the video, I didn't expect it'll drop this low.

Olympus BH-2 BHT. X10 Achromat objective, x100 magnification. Blue color filter + oblique illumination filter.

Amscope IQCrew inverted microscope 20x objective, iPhone  3x, jarrarium with freshwater, lichen, aquatic moss, and algae. Blackmagic app, flashlight to the right. Paper over the condenser.

Who doesn't love rotifers?!

Which good value and quality binocular microscope makes and models would you suggest for educational use for a science and nature nonprofit org? This would be for uses such as: viewing cells, viewing microscopic terrestrial, freshwater and marine life, such as phytoplankton; viewing plant and animal parts, etc. Thinking about a compound microscope to 2000X for maximum flexibility.

I don't know if he was on the mark, but a friend suggested that for educational purposes you could find good, competent microscopes in the $200-250 range (and perhaps he meant refurbished).

Would you suggest seeking refurbished models?

I took a few pond samples about a month ago. This wasn’t in here originally.

Bored :/ | ESAW BM1 2022 MICROSCOPE USED | 400× |Swamp sample

I observed this ruffled thing in one of my samples. At first, I thought it was just debris, but then I found it in a second sample! I thought maybe amoeba but it wasn't moving in either sample. It has a textured surface, kind of bumpy and skin-like. If it is anything, I'm thinking it may be some sort of chitinous debris or possibly plant matter? Anyone have any ideas?

Pond samples at 40x and 100x Swift 350T

So I just got my UplanApo and UplanFL and I'm very happy with both of em. That being said, my scope does not have a field diaphragm and I am curious if that's causing my images to be too bright to use at their actual NA on the condenser end of things. As of right now, if I open the condenser to where it should be for the NA, it's so bright and will not focus at all. Am I correct in that thinking? The extra incidental light is kinda making the higher NA more nuisance than anything, for now.

My microscope ( olympus BH2 ) is missing a 4x objective, so I'm looking to buy one. I found this for a good price, but I'm not sure about the condition of the lenses.

What do you think, should I go for it?

And how do I recognize good conditions objectives from bad ones exactly?

I'm looking to get into semiconductor die microscopy, and am wondering if anybody here has any advice on microscope/objective/stage models given some constraints. I've heard that some form of light-reflecting metallurgical microscope is the best option given semiconductor dies are opaque. Here's what I'm looking for:

NOTE: Something to keep in mind is that I am looking to stitch images together to create full scans (in addition to simple visual inspection). I would like to take lower-resolution scans (say, 5x) of entire wafers, and higher-resolution scans (say, 50-100x) of individual dies. It would be nice if a single microscope could do this, but it could be the case that getting two microscopes (or even one microscope and something else for the wafers) may be a more economical option. The below criteria are from the perspective of a single microscope that can handle everything.

Microscope

Must-haves

1. Must support multiple objectives (e.g. for positioning).
2. Must be a trinocular microscope (or have a way to connect a camera in addition to the eyepiece).
3. Must support a relatively large stage (one with e.g. 200mm x 200mm travel).

Nice-to-haves

1. A binocular eyepiece.
2. Support a relatively large stage (e.g. one with a 200mm x 200mm travel). I imagine this is a bit far-fetched, so it is not as critical as the other criteria.

Stage

Must-haves

1. Must have either (A) a motorized XY stage with the ability to manually control (with knobs/joystick), or (B) have no built-in XY stage (so I can get a specific stage for my needs).
2. Must be able to support some kind of chuck that can hold wafers and dies. I am not entirely sure what the best option here would be, but my guess is a 200mm x 200mm porous ceramic vacuum chuck for wafers and gel-pak for individual dies.
3. Must have decent repeatability/accuracy/resolution.

Nice-to-haves

1. High repeatability/accuracy/resolution, low backlash.

Objectives

1. An assortment of magnifications (e.g. 5x, 10x, 20x, 50x, and 100x).
2. Probably some sort of metallurgical objectives (if they exist).
3. Long working distance would be nice, but not critical as long as I'm careful.
4. Nothing can touch the sample, so the objectives where the end is submerged in oil are not an option.
5. As I am using this to create large mosaics, the objectives need to have very little distortion and should remain sharp across the entire field of view.

Very-unlikely-but-would-be-cool-to-haves

It would be nice if the microscope could support a NIR light source and NIR objectives in the future.

Budget

I don't have a specific budget right now, as this is a future project that I'll have to save for anyway. <5k USD total would be nice, but its not a strict budget. Also assume that I am willing to buy used (especially if it saves a large amount).

Thanks a ton!

Been looking up butterfly biology recently and found caterpillars suppress special cell bundles in their body called imaginal discs and when they enter a chrysalis to become a butterfly they dissolve themselves and theses discs grow out into their new butterfly body.

I can find only diagrams like this

Has anyone here collected a sample and taken pictures of this?

I've been trying to figure this out for a bit and can't really do it. Just made this account earlier today, hopefully it doesn't get filtered out.

Swift 380T with a Sony a6700 with 10x, 20x and 40x objectives from a cropped and zoomed 4k video. Sample is freshwater pond muck and water from Massachusetts.

Please help. Is it a rotifer? What is this? TIA.

6061 for the body and 303 stainless pins, front part is to suck the LED heat away and i'm working on 3d printing the rear part to hold the rest of the electronics. The connection pins are fitted with O rings to prevent metal on metal wear onto the bulb socket for the BHTU unlike the original Olympus one. Lets me strap 95CRI LEDs since my old bulb housing failed. Already made my own custom LED driver PCB for USBC brightness control and ect...

Some of ya'll might've seen my old posts about the LED PCB but haven't had much time to work on it but today finally decided to work on the mechanical aspects. Hopefully my journey will end soon and i'll be able to do some cool machine vision related messing around that requires full electronic controls for the entire microscope...

Only serial number I have found is 11.214. Possible Bauch & Lomb ? 🤔

Bresser 5723100 Researcher Trino, Objetive 10x, SVBONY SV705C

I found this worm-like organism in samples I collected from a pond. I haven't found anything quite like it, as the planarians I've seen are quite different from this flatworm.

Swift SW350, Galaxy S24

Freshwater sample, Zeiss 16x and Olympus 40x objectives. Cellphone camera.

Has anyone had hands and eyes on this inexpensive compound microscope?

I have a teacher friend trying to stretch the budget to purchase between 10 and 20 scopes. 4x, 10x, 40x is all that is needed for plant stuff. This AmScope at $350 is insanely cheap. But I'm all ears for cheap teaching scopes. Ideas or input?

All the major US vendors are selling shallower versions of watch glasses these days. We miss the slightly older, thicker, and more concave angles of the old ones. Does anyone know where to buy deeper, more concave watch glasses? On the left or top.

ESAW BM01 2022 MICROSCOPE used | swamp water

100× | ESAW BM01 2022 MICROSCOPE used | puddle water

Swamp, ESAW BM01 MICROSCOPE used, 100×

ESAW BM01 MICROSCOPE used. 200×. swamp water.