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Information for the First time Microscope Buyer

MUST READ :   Digital Imaging (Nikon UK). A really great resource, including Power Point slides from the course they offer. Even without the lecture material everyone interested in digital imaging should spend a lot of time on this site. It will provide the whole community a great reference for digital imaging discussions.

New Links

• First Stop for Core pages such a Micscape, Molecular Expressions, suppliers and much more.

• This is the best used book finder I have found yet.[I get paid for using this one]
  

New & used books - Find the lowest price



• COMPRESSORIA by Mike Dingley, Australia
  

• Results from a McCrone Spindle Stage Short Course, a New Version of EXCALIBR, and How to Build a Spindle Stage” by Mickey E. Gunter
  

• The Spindle Stage: Principles and Practice. F. Donald Bloss. Excerpt. More information. Page 2.
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• “The Petrographic Microscope:Evolution of a Mineralogical Research Instrument.”,  Daniel E. Kile,
  Special Publication No. 1, A Supplement to The Mineralogical Record,Nov-Dec 03,The Mineralogical Record Inc., P.O. Box 35565,Tucson, Arizona 85740; email: minrec@aol.com; phone: 520-297-6709. US $20.00
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• James Wyant's page on a short corses on opitics they all look great I came in the back door from a page on Interfance Microcscoes that helped me a lot. One could get lost here for a while
  

•  INSECTS AND MITES: TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS by M. E. Schasff
  

• Rotifer Sites
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• Fermented Foods
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• M. B. Stephens Macro Lighting Setup
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• University of Georgia  Slime Molds
  

• http://www.axiomat.org/index.php add this to science-info.net too

• Zeiss Historical Society cameras, microscopes, the whole ball of wax.

• Leeuwenhoek references hosted on www.science-info.net an archive of documentation I maintain.

• To Make a Van Leeuwenhoek Microscope Replica 5/16/96 copyright Alan Shinn Hosted by Steve Born

• “To Make a Leeuwenhoek Microscope Replica”, Alan Shin, Microscopy Today Vol: 4 # 6, January 1996

• More on Van Leeuwenhoek Type Scopes by Roger Baker

• NIH page on Solvent toxicity. Your USA tax dollars at work providing useful information from their Drug Abuse Unit on the effects of the concentration of solvent vapors.

• Pages on cleaning optics. Company7 on telescopes. Collodion for cleaning optics hosted by the Alachua Astronomy Club. “A Professional Method for Cleaning Optics”, by Robert Ariail - (From the Journal of the ATS - 1995, Issue 8) hosted by the Antique Telescope Society.

• “WORKING WITH DIATOMS Techniques and Mounting Methods Explained”, by James D. Solliday May 12, 2003

• From a Bablefish translation of www.mikroskopie-forum.de/read.php?2,25799,25799#msg-25799 that some stunning pictures of A. pellucida prepared by Klaus Kemp. The electron microscope pictures were done by Dr.Gary Gaugler. I believe the fellow that posted the message did the 150x and possibly the 1350x. My forty year old semester of German and Bablefish are not too good on the fine points of the posts. Any corrections or additions are welcome. 1/10/7

• Discussion on cleaning digital sensors. Here is one from Oz & the ultimate SLR site. More links need to be found on this subject.[gc]1/7/07

• Grinding & Polishing a Lens Newport Glass Works. 1/7/07

• Don Ellis on Digital Infrared Photography. 1/7/07

• “Filter Holders, Filters,and More Filter Holders”, by Rosemarie Arbur, February 2001: Micscape. 1/7/07

• C. Elegans Resources at WormBase.org. This little worm has more work done with it than any living thing.
  Here is the Over View and the lab work for their genetics course from College of Wooster, OH.
  “Chemically defined medium and Caenorhabditis elegans”, NathanielJSzewczyk, ElenaKozak and CatharineAConley*, Space Life Research, NASA Ames Research Center.
  A bibliography on C elegans.
  The Characteristics of C. elegans That Make It Useful in Teaching.
  A liquid culture of E. coli to feed the little buggers from Dartmouth.1/7/07
  
  
  

• Michael W. Davidson's Molecular Expressions is a continuously growing and evolving resource on microscopy. The Java tutorials explain many complex concepts and it is the firs place I go for information.1/7/07

• A paper  (22 pages) on Dr. James C. Waynt's website. He is Dean of the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. This paper has a short discussion of Zernike phase contrast, FECO interferometer, Nomarski reflected light microscope, and Francon Interference Eyepiece. It also describes the use of Mirau, Linnnik & Michelson Interferometers for examining surface quality. Dr. Waynt has done a great deal of work with interferometry and his papers, many of which are available on his website, might be of interest to some of you. Once again Physics is showing the way to Open Access Publishing by retaining copyright to the papers they publish so they can make them available to others.

• The UN Food Agriculture Organization FAO page on Veterinary Diagnostic Parasitology gives a step by step method for finding parasites, their eggs and cysts in fecal material. It is mostly written for cattle but worms are worms and the same principles apply across all species. It is set up for small laboratory's in the third world and is suited for most amateurs. 1/7/07

• A Patent to PDF site it converts US patents to PDF files & easier to use than the US Patent Office.1/7/07

• USDA Pollen slide preparation page.1/7/07

• Robert Bagnell, Jr.'s chapter on Lenses it leads to the Microscopy page at the Medical School at Chapel Hill, NC. The page promises to have a lot of stuff to mine.1/7/07

• The University of Victoria's Photo resource page of links.1/7/07

• “Anesthetic, Relaxant, and Narcotizing Agents for Aquatic Invertebrates” from the Wood's Hole Biological Bulletin. A journal with open access to older articles.1/7/07

• A page on polarized light microscopes from Olympus.1/7/07

• Links to Other Rotifer Sites . 1/7/07

• Micro Spherometer For very small lenses. I think it is interferometer made from plumbing fittings. This describes modifications so a standard microscope will measure the radius of curvature of extremely small lenses to a high precision. He has more on optics at – P. J. Smith . 1/7/07

• Making Digital Camera Microscope Adapters. 1/7/07

• Some camera thread specifications from Ranox . 1/7/07

• Step up rings for Nikon CoolPix cameras maintained by Ching-Kuang Shene PhD. I have $100 worth of the things and I still don't have the right one when I need it. 1/7/07

• The Royal Screw or the RMS/DIN microscope objective thread and eyepice tube size. The objective thread is 0.8 inch 32 tpi Whitworth Thread. 1/7/07

• Digital Camera Support for Unix, Linux, Free BSD and other operating systems. The page is dated and the newer camera adhere to even fewer standards than before:(. 1/7/07

• Nikon's instructions for mounting a CoolPix 5000 on a microscope. 1/7/07

• BIO 346: Introduction to Microscopy and Image Analysis lab page, “This laboratory is a practical course (not an experimental course) in light microscopy. It is designed to give you a theoretical basis in and a "taste" of the power and limitations of light microscopy as an investigative tool” from The Depatment of Biology Kenyon College . 1/7/07

• “Basic Microscope Alignment”, Douglas W. Cromey, U. of Arizona'

• Stephen Durr's page An introduction to photomicrography. Algae, Protoctista & Bacteria. 1/7/07

• A very good page in French on Reflected Light Microscopy. Translated version . 1/7/07

• Laboratory Methods The following notes are an attempt to cover some of the practical aspects of our protozoology classwork. We will discuss collection, cultivation and staining of protists, along with techniques for visualizing protists. The first section is devoted to the latter aspect - microscopy. General Protozoology BSCI 485 Eugene B. Small Department of Biology, U. of Maryland, Some links to Protistan sites. 1/7/07

• A paper on artifacts in a Nikon CoolPix 4500 “Methode zur völligen Vermeidung von Ringartefakten unter Ölimmersion (100x-Objektiv) bei Coolpix 4500 mittels Beschränkung auf die kleinstmögliche Brennweite (Zoom-Stellung auf maximaler Weitwinkel)”, H.-O. Baral, Nov. 2004.
  I have done a good deal of work in this field and he has artifacts I haven't seen in my observations on Nikon CoolPix cameras and other digital cameras. 1/7/07

• LED FAQ . 1/7/07

• Growing Snowflakes at CalTech.

• Non-Destructive Evaluation - Scanning Magnetic Microscopy (SMM) by the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering CALCE at the University of Maryland
  The Tristan model SMM-1000 Scanning Magnetic Microscope. 1/7/07

• Olympus camera, macro and micro photo documentation.

• Microscopy a la Mauve, The Library of Victorian Microscopical Enthusiasm by Harry Brown . 1/7/07

• P.S. Neeley's homepage. He hosts User Manuals for a wide range of AO Spencer microscopes and accessories. Also included are some interesting catalogs.
  
  
  

• Eldred Spell shows how to repair the iris on the field diaphragms on a Wild M20. Here he shows how to make a  microscope lamp with a 3 Watt LED replacement LED from WalMart A search of the Yahoo Microscope group for Eldred or LED Conversion - AO Series 4 Socket/MagLite will find it. Eldred is an old school craftsman that makes flute mouth pieces by hand. His story is worth reading if you are interested in craftsmanship.

• The text of the Mineralogical Record. It would great if it had images and not so many adds and pop ups but the price is hard to beat. It is good to see more and more publications available to the public as open access in any form.

• An elegant wooden dissecting microscope form Molecular Expressions' museum.1/7/07

• The New Photomicrography by Peter Evennett the paper that sparked the Nikon CoolPix's popularity on microscopes.

• A paper in Dr. James C Waynt's directory structure. He is Dean of the College of Optical Sciences at Arizona University. The paper has a short discussion of Zernike phase contrast, FECO interferometer, Nomarski reflected light microscope, and Francon Interference Eyepiece. Mirau, Linnnik & Michelson Interferometers for examining the surfaces. Dr. Waynt has done a great deal of work with interferometery and his papers might be of interest to some of you he has many of them on his web site. Once again Physics is showing the way to Open Access Publishing by retaining copyright to the papers they publish so they can make them available to others.

• Charles Krebs this years winner of Nikon's 2005 Small World Photo Contest  last years 6th place image. His photo setup  and a piece form Scientific Computing by Jennifer A. Miller. Charles' use of modest microscope equipment to get consistently top quality results should tell us all something about the process of photography. It's not the tools but  how you use them that make the picture. Much of his work is on http://www.amateurmicroscopy.net/ Eye-Opening Images Highlight Nikon’s Microscopy Photo Awards By Salvatore Salamone wrote for  Bio-It World points out a 6.25x enlargement one this years Nikon Small World Contest. Krebs' fly was one of a kind image that out stood out from  the 19 other winning images an 10 honorable mentions that look more like abstract art than nature. Charles has placed in the Photo Contest two years in a row using equipment that costs about the same the reagents for some of the photographs he competes with. That is pretty impressive work[gc].

• Ron Neumeyer's page on CoolPix Flash Imaging. shows how to build a very effective fiber optic  electronic flash and incandescent  light  source. not only does he have some great professional images but his page on lighting techniques is very good as well. his whole site is worth spending some time going through.

  Tom Webster, Charles Krebs this years winner of Nikon's 2005 Small World Photo Contest Micheal Kenistion, Danny Young, et. al. have a very well done site Amateur Microscopy  they have an active form, articles and stunning  photos. And unlike many forms are an active open group that is getting some very good things done. Also they are publishing an internet community Photomacrophy  It has some professional level work in Photomicrophotography as well. It has a form and gallery as well.. This one is worth looking into and joining.
  
  
  

• Loes Modderman Ms. Modderman's work is both beautiful and interesting work with crystals, sand, plastics, fluids and more.
  
  
  

• I called Ladd Research and asked if they were interested in selling to amateurs. The answer was they treat us as any other customer. They have an interesting product mix including a good deal of things for light microscopes. The have  stains a $7.95 polypropylene Coplin Staining Jar can be microwaved or autoclaved, Lad-O-Lac is an new mouing agent for fibers and is optically clear lacquer that may have uses for other loose subjects, and Formvar Solutions for  replicas of snowflakes and other thing in quantities the the hazardous freight shipping cost don't kick in. 
  
  
  

• My Opinion of he Role of New Microscopes for the Serious Amateur 8/18/2006

• Optical Microscopy by Michael W. Davidson & Mortimer Abramowitz for Molecular Expressions  one of the best short papers on light microscopes I have seen.
  
  P. S. Neeley's AO Spenpcer pages. I wish mine looked as good.

• Raynox filter Adapters with Thread Sizes

• Richard J. Kinch's  Making Digital Camera Microscope Adapters

• Barry Carter's Afocal Photography.

• Transmitted light DIC uses crossed Pol filters and 2 prisms that  Georges Nomarski modified the Wollaston prism to intensify the effect Smith has found with Wollaston prisms that shear the light in their polarize components and reassemble them with the error caused by the delay in the subject to stand out.  A wave plat will enhance the effect. Adding DIC to a full Pol scope is even more effective See:
  http://www.olympusmicro.com/primer/techniques/dic/dichome.html

• A more modern version by Zeiss that works with plastic culture vessel & dishes. I haven't quit digested is PlasDIC – a useful modification of the differential interference contrast according to Smith/Nomarski in transmitted light arrangement.

• For AO Spenser, Leitz and other brands of microscope parts from donor scopes as well as new and used microscopes and wide product line and service for it. "You may want to contact Steve Souisa at McBain Instruments in Southern California (818.998.2702), has historically they have kept a large inventory of AO repair parts.  They were an AO dealer from 1964 until the absorption of AO into Cambridge Instruments, which eventually merged with Wild/Leitz to become Leica. McBain remains a Leica distributor and service center to this day.",Gregg Kleinberg Yahoo list 5/11/05

• Olympus's web site on sources for Microscopy Specimen Chambers. Some interesting designs for growth chambers that fit on a microscope stage and other growth chambers as well.

• Ted Clarke's work from Microscopy Today on Fitting a Student Microscope with a Consumer Digital Camera and Chromatic Aberration in Digital Photomicrography from Microscopes Requiring Compensating Eyepieces in "Lateral Chromatic Aberration from Using a Noncompensating Coolpix Adapter with a BH2 Microscope" Ted Clark, Modern Microscopy  Feb  (2004) Ted Clarke is  a metallurgical engineer who has retired from his professional career working for  International Harvester farm equipment and the entities that  owned it over later  years. This is a particularly interesting area for me with a broad background in agriculture as well. I host his web pages because he is one of the foremost experimenters in home-made microscopy and has a broad experience in both photomicroscopy and photomacrography. He is very prolific in his work with microscopes, making do with affordable solutions and getting professional results in his home shop. I am a bit behind in keeping his web page up to date. It only covers his work in microscopy and not any of his very good work in metallurgy. As a framer I used some of the products he developed and they were some of the best on the market.  Agriculture is a very difficult market because the costs are so high and the margins so thin throughout the industry. It is not like most fields where throwing more money at the problem will get results that are marketable. Anything that you make must make the sure money right off  the bat. In addition to all the scientific work Ted is a master machinist as well. He has built many of the machine tools he uses including an excellent lathe. He is presently working on scanning light photomacrography system "Constructing a Scanning Light Photomacrography System " Ted Clark, Modern Microscopy  March  (2005) that uses a digital camera or 35mm film camera on a bellows with scanning the sample through a horizontal beam of light illuminating  only regions within the objectives depth of field  that greatly increases the depth of field for small format images up to 50X print magnification.  This is a modern replacement for the no longer made Dynaphot.
  Ted is a consulting metallurgist and prolific author  that has spent most of his life working for heavy industry. He manufactures precision microscope parts and a camera adapter available through McCrone & Associates and produces outstanding work modifying and building microscopes and image particular in dispersion staining.
  More from Ted in Microscopy Today on  "Brightfield Illumination of Large field Sizes," Ted Clarke,  Microscopy Today  July (2003) or http://microscopy-today.com/PDFFiles/MT-2003-04-small.pdf page 22.

• Cargil labs fluids for microscope and out work with visible light.

• Leeuwenhoek's methods are back on the cutting edge in Microdroplet makes Mighty Microscope, Showing 60 nanometer resolution with a conventional light microscope.

• <MUST READ>A really great resource on digital imaging by Nikon UK. All the Power Point slides from the digital imaging course they offer. Even without the accompany lecture material something ever one interested in digital imaging should spend a lot of time on this site. I will provided the whole community a great reference for digital imaging discussions.

• Directory to Open Access Journals. On line scientific journals that have full public access. 6/7/04

•  From Penn State Veterinary Medical Department their requirements for veterinary microscope for students. This is an excellent resource for anyone considering buying a microscope new or used. It is of course written from the point of view of a medical students needs and  their prejudice against research scopes make good sense for beginners that are not very serious about devoting a lot of time leaning to use their microscope.

• Chuck Dillener's  Intelligent Vision Solutions  has a USB 2 video capture device, microscope camera and other machine vision solutions that apply to microscopy.

• A shareware unage anaylsis program  by K. U. Leuven, Carnoy for Macintosh and Windows.

• Microscope manufacturer Time line 11/6/04.

• Principles and Applications of Two-Beam Interferometer 10/28/04

• A  Simple Confocal Microscope built by Arthur Rosenfelder on plans by Jeff W Lichtman M. D., PhD.

• Dr. Stephen S. Nagy, M.D. Montana Diatoms Dr. Nagy makes and sells STYRAX a lower index of refraction resin th HYRAX sutibel for highly-silicfied fossils. Dr. Nagy also sells diatoms from time to time privately and on ebay. l.

• Online West and West's British Desmidiaceae This is one of the fundamental works on desmids, and one of the most comprehensive floras available.10/22/04

• How the Confocal Microscope Laser Scanning microscope Entered Biological Research, W. B. Amos, J. G. White, Biology of the Cell, May 2000 Hosted on Science Direct online.

• An Online collection of documentation for Microscopes, micotomes and some other related equipment.

• John Kiernan's Facts and Files a great resource of histochemistry, neuroanatomy, water based mounting media, fixatives and more.4/25/04

• The DIADIST project to identify diatoms and desmids by shape and texture.4/25/04

• Microtome knives and sharpening C. L Sturkey, Inc 4/25/04

• Good Books for the amateur microscope worker on Mike Shaw's site.4/25/04

• The National Institute of Standards and Technology NIST  is one of the largest meta pages I have come across for links to many links of useful thinks for technically oriented people. Get something back for your taxes. Virtual Library. A list of  electronic journals many open source [free]. It include government publications, patent resources, and much much more. Physics lab  Optical Technology Division  on Near-field Scanning Optical Microscopy shows light image of features well beyond the Abby limit.

• Nikon CoolPix external electronic flash FAQ. My Quick and Dirty Slave for electronic flashes for a CoolPix. Sam's Strobe FAQ notes on electronic flashes and strobes including one time use cameras.6/03/04

• A good page on fiber optics. 6/17/04

• Jim Solliday's Gallery  A stunning collection of macro and micro Photography. Hosted by Thomas Webster on his on Closer Inception site. 5-29-04

• Thomas Webster's Closer Inception site. Thomas is a professional photographer with a wide range of experience whose interests have shifted  to the smaller side of things much to our benefit. In partnership with Danny Young and Michael Keniston,  they have created, www.photomacrographery.net and www.amateurmicroscopy.net. They have forms on these web sites that seem to be doing much better than forms have done in the past. They have implemented an image based system that is ideal for discussing images. These sites will eat up a lot of your time.5-29-04

• The Ideal Scientific Supply Company. Furnishing difficult to find items such as  Magnetic Monopoles, Gamma Ray Microscopes and Frictionless planes. Leave reality behind when you enter this site.

• Photographing Snowflakes, Wilson A. Bentley, Popular Mechanics Magazine (1922)

• Project ADIAC: Automatic Diatom Identification And Classification has many diatom images.

• Physical properties of shellac 12-15-02

• VirtualDub a free Video Capture utility some use for capturing microscope videos. 2/14/04

• Micrographia's page on making a Kohler illuminator with a white LED,  Spend some time here there are several good articles on Kohler & flash illumination video and other subjects. Tutorials in microscope use and preparation of material. They have an easy to navigate page with a great deal of interesting information and lovely images.2/1/04 

• Erhard Mathias adapts a video camcorder to a microscope with a simple negative lens on his page Micro Contrasts where he shows several was to improve contrast with homemade methods. Diffraction contrast using wires in objectives and a variable darkfield wedge are two unique method his shows how to build. 1/23/04

• Ely Silk's FluorEVER Microscope an LED powered EPI fluorescent microscope on he View's from Science page. 01/22/04

• Fungi Key brought to you by the Plant Pathology Cooperative Extension Service of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Resources at the University of Georgia. 01/22/04

• Ian Walker discusses polarized light mirosopes in  a Micscape article The Polarizing Microscope. 01/22/04

Micros.info A microbiology information portal containing a vast collection of resources including articles, news, frequently asked questions, and links pertaining to the field of microbiology.6-30-2003

From Micscape a piece on Trials with an Emoscop® on a digital camera  by Dave Walker. Dave shows how to adapt an inexpensive digital camera to macro photography. 1-5-03

Gregor Overney's page Microscopy and Photomicrography [bad link] he has some good information on digital photography backed with a lot of experience. 1-21-04

Setting a Nikon CoolPix 990-995 by Aaron Messing posted to sci.techniques.microscopy. My thanks to Aaron for permission to host this post on how to set up a CoolPix for use on a microscope. It points out a couple of things I wasn't always doing right and it would have saved me a lot of frustration getting started with my CoolPix on a microscope. 11/18/02 Time has prooved this pretty well applies to all cameras. [gc] 1/7/07

Everett Ramer's page "Biomedical Structural Research" an extensive page on microscope and imaging resources including a many links to imaging software and source code for imaging algorithms. I expect to spend a long time mining this one.  10/18/02

I stumbled into a work in by CORD (Supporting the Development of Photonics Technicians in U.S. Community and Technical Colleges). I has many broken links but this page seems to access all they information just open the directories and click on the html files. It has some very interesting information on xenon arc lamp power supplies, lasers and such. Happy hunting.10/14/02

A search on http://www.biotech.ufl.edu that brought up a method of making Ralph knifes from glass slides. Search for Ralph knife.10/14/02

Cheap Home-Made Glovebox, by J* Journal of Chemical Education Vol. 78(11), 1513 (2001). 10/14/02

Open Mind Journals on line abstracts. Applied Bioinformatics, Applied Biotechnology,  Food Science and Policy, Applied Environmental Science and Public Health, Applied Genomics and Proteomics, Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Applied Population and Policy. 10-13-02

Micscape's page on Buying A Microscope and How To Use it from their An Introduction to Microscopy by Wim van Egmond.

LED Fluorescence Microscopy in Theory and Practice by Ely Silk, In this article for The Society for Amateur Scientists Mr. Silk explores using LED as a source of fluorescent light but his method of using an oiled right angle glass prism to introduce the light into a glass slide using the slide as a light pipe has some interesting possibilities. One possibility is to build a fluorescent microscope for diagnostic use in the third world for pennies on the dollar of what a regular fluorescent scope costs.

Super Searcher National Network of Libraries of Medicine Course Outline. The search engines and how the pros use them. At least that want my wife told me to say.

Electronic Flash as a Light Source for Photography through the Microscope This page not only shows how to build an electronic flash but is a gold mine of information on micro photography. I have written the person hosting the page for his name so I can give him the credit he deserves Thanks to Raymond Hummelink For the tip on the site..

Micrographia's page on Electronic flash.2/1/04

• Mike Shaw's page  MicroStuff from a site that has a number of interesting science projects going on.

• Formulas for light filters made with water from Photo-micrography by R. M. Allen 1958

• Nikon CoolPix Cable release bracket that uses a standard cable release and flash bracket. David Coles has a great project here. One I wish I had thought of. For high magnification work on microscopes at long exposures epoxying a brace to square the box should make the bracket less prone to vibration problems. Not something he was concerned about.- Gordon

• The Collection and Preservation of Algae in the Society for Amateur Scientists. A link to the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History source.

• Forest Miller and others page on Digital Dragon Flies not only has beautiful images of dragon flies but shows how to use a scanner to image them unharmed. The Digital Dragon Fly Project at Texas A & M University

• Improved Technique for Identification of Plant Fragments in Herbivore Feces, Ian Clunies for CSIRO Australia.

• John Moran shows how to build a jig to sharpen microtome knives and plans to build a slide ringer on his Balplan Microscope site. He also has an  excellent piece on maintenance and cleaning microscopes.

• Don Thomson's suggestions for some variations on Dark Ground Illumination.

• THE CONTENTS OF 'TECHNICAL' of  the Quekett Microscopical Club's page

• The Quekett Microscopical Club's Links to Natural History.

• COLLECTION. PREPARATION. AND PRESERVATION OF MICROFOSSILS from Introduction To Microfossils, Chap 11, pp 7-16, Daniel J. Jones, 1956 - Harper & Brothers N.Y.

• The optical turntable by Juraj Poliak, 1999. An interesting page on using light to read old  Edison phonograph cylinders and records.

• MOTION MOUNTAIN - THE PHYSICS TEXTBOOK An online physic textbook.

• Combine Z4 a free image stacking program that stacks multiple image from different planes of focus and yields one in focus image. It shows promise I haven't worked with it enough to get it tuned for best results. This program has gone through 3 major updated making it easier to use for micro, macro and full sized images. A tool no digital photographer should be with out. 1/22/04

• The Microscope on a Budget A Complete Guide to the Low Cost Light Microscope for the Laboratory, Photographers, and Hobbyists copyright © M. Brian Stevens. An on line book on microscopy. Mr. Stevens also has some pages on photraphing jewelry and other small items the will be of interest to many of you.

• I collect Microscope documentation and I have a good deal of documentation for older scopes and other related items. Zeiss has a good deal of their documentation on line. It has been a moving target so go to this page and use the search function from manual or you particular need. Olympus camera, macro and micro photo documentation  Olympus PM 10AD Photomicrographic System (slow link). Mikroskop Online host the scanned documentation for Zeiss aus Jenna and aus Jenna microscopes. They also have a nice Microscope Museum Alta Vista's Babel Fish or Google's translation will help none German readers through the pages but the documents have not be OCRed into text so they are difficult for those of us that don't read German to use. Over 100 years ago my grandfather was studying to be an organic chemist and minoring in German now at times we let students use a computer language for their foreign language requirement. John Moran hosts the B & L Balplan Instruction Manual. P. S Nealy's homepage. He hosts A O Spencer manuals and Catalogs.
  
  
  
  

  Commercial links

• Mark Simmons owns Perspective Image and make eyepieces/relay lenses for microscopes that adapt most digital and film cameras to microscopes quite easily. He has optics for compensating and non-compensating objectives listing Leitz Periplan and Zeiss Kpl optics as well as his own designs. A sleeper is his Modular Microscope Objective Holder that is short tube microscope that works well as macro attachment in the field for a digital camera. I have 2 of his eyepieces and they work very well. I have the ability to use any eyepiece I please with any camera I have and I seldom use any eyepiece but Marks because they are so easy to use. A Zeiss Kpl Pol eyepiece will have less chromatic aberration than Mark's with Zeiss Pol and Pol Plan objectives. But unless I am taking a picture of something like a stage micrometer that has sharp lines and passes both red and blue light it is hard to see.
  Mark also does some custom machine shop work for microscopist.

• Galvoptics an optics suppler

• I called Ladd Reasearch and asked if they were interested in selling to amateurs. The answer was they treat us as any other customer. They have an interesting product mix including a good deal of things for light microscopes. The have  stains a $7.95 polypropylene Coplin Staining Jar can be microwaved or autocalved, Lad-O-Lac is an new mouing agent for fibers and is optically clear lacquer that may have uses for other loose subjects, and Formvar Solutions for  replicas of snowflakes and other thing in quantities the the hazardous freight shipping cost don't kick in. 

• Niles Biological, Inc an amateur friendly  supplier with stains, methyl cellulose and other things we often have trouble finding. Ted Niles the owner is a very friendly fellow. With a business geared for education. He has a good collection of live animals, eggs, pupa, microbes, fungi, etc. In today's security minded world the prices seem reasonable compared to the big suppliers that often won't give us the time of day.

• Delaware Diamond Knives offers a single strand wire saw for special  needs.

• Bill Hatcher owns Laboratory Optical Service, LLC a dealer for Motic microscopes and and carries and services a broad range of use micros scopes and sells on ebay as loswah The page is new and just getting started so it needs checking back on now and then. I won ebay item  #3844868533 of His and his shipping and communication was prompt. The scope was flawless and the packing good. 10-14-04

• The Microscope Depot has a array of kits and accessories including stains and culture media that are reasonably priced and may be for interest as well as a line of microscopes, cameras, software and accessories. 1/29/2004

• Rod Templeton at Lab Essentials, Inc. has usual lab supplies and welcomes armatures  he also sells urine indicator strips and has a teaching head for a microscope that could possibly be adapted as a monocular photo tube to other microscopes. I would want to check the beam splitter and an adapter would have to be made to make the dovetail fit what ever scope it was be adapted to fit and the tube length considered but it is the only source of a tube like this I have seen. 12-1-03

• Bill Daily's MicrAP Enterprises manufactures DIN adapters to allow older short barrel objectives to be converted to 45 mm parafocal distance so they can be intermixed with newer objectives. He also has diatoms for sale, high index of refection media (1.68 & 1.72) and an adapter to connect fiber optics lights to Leitz Ortholux microscopes. He has also built a really nice looking stage mounted micro-manipulator. 1-5-03

• MVIA, Inc. makes adapters with optics designed for the Nikon Coolpix series cameras that can be connected either through the eyepieces or a trinocular port.  In addition they also offer research grade digital cameras and image analysis software as well. 1-5-03

• Perkin-Elmer High Performance Flash and Arc Lamps. Their catalog with helpful circuitry on power supplies and triggering circuits. 10/14/02

• HarborTronics DigiSnap 1000 a remote control for Nikon CoolPix Cameras and other digital cameras with more features than the Nikon's remote.

• Miller-Stephenson Chemical Co., Inc. carries a dry lubricant that is reported to be suitable for vacuum applications and shutter lubrication MS-143V and MS-145

• Optical shaft encoders and other parts for precision machine control from Gurley Precision Interments

• Specialty Light Bulbs has bulbs for many microscopes.

• Equipment, supplies and books for Entomology an related sciences.

• Zarf's adaptors for Nikon CoolPix, Sony and Mavica digital cameras. Simple adaptors that mount on eyepieces and screw in to the treads of the camera.

Undefined

• Archaea is one of the most difficult organisms to culture and lives in some of the harshest conditions on earth archaea research at the University of Helsinki and Berkeley .

• CATO Institute's Biotechnology Information Directory - The WWW Virtual Library. An institute that promotes biotechnology and has extensive links to biotech information. Regardless how you feel about this controversial subject the information here is useful.

• Rats , mice, hamsters and others and all about them part of Vet Net & The Electronic Zoo maintained by Ken Boschert, DVM , Associate Director, Washington University.

• Conversion page for converting units. Good for converting furlongs to microns. One of the best I have seen.

• US Army field Manuals . Practical methods on water treatment, sewage and many other topics it may be off topic but, it's my page

  The optical turntable by Juraj Poliak, 1999. An interesting page on using light to read old  Edison phonograph cylinders and records.

• The Quekett Microscopical Club's Links to Natural History.

• The Digital Dragon Fly Project at Texas A & M University

• Mike Shaw's page  MicroStuff from a site that has a number of interesting science projects going on.
  
  
  

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Updated by Gordon Couger 01/15/2006

Reviewed by Keith Shaw 10/28/2006

Send comments and additional links : gcouger@gmail.com