Microscope World Blog

Muscovite (Mica)

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Tue, 29 May 2012 12:30:00 +0000

Muscovite (also known as mica) is a mineral made of aluminium and potassium. It is made up of very thin sheets which are often elastic. Sheets of muscovite that are huge (5 meters by 3 meters) have been discovered in Nellore India.

Muscovite with albite from Doce valley, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Photo: Rob Lavinsky

Muscovite can be colorless or tinted through grays, browns, greens, yellows or very rarely, reds. It is the most common mica, found in granites, pegmatites, gneisses, and schists. In pegmatites it is often found in immense sheets that are commercially valuable. It is in demand for fireproofing and insulating materials and to some extent as a lubricant.

Muscovite image captured with a polarizing microscope using the ProgRes C14+ microscope camera.

The name muscovite comes from Muscovy-glass, a name formerly used for the mineral because of its use for windows in Russia.

Salty Liquorice

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Salmiak (also known as salty liquorice) is a variety of liquorice flavored with ammonium chloride, common in Nordic countries, Netherlands, and Northern Germany. The ammonium chloride gives the liquorice a salty taste, which some describe as tongue-numbing.

Salmiak is usually an acquired taste and often people not familiar with the strong taste find it overwhelming. The candies are almost always black and can range from very brittle to soft in texture. The flavor of salty liquorice is sometimes used in ice cream or alcoholic beverages.

This microscope image of salmiak was captured with a Jenoptik ProgRes microscope camera.

Quartz & Metal Under Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:39:00 +0000

Quartz and metal can both have reflective traits that sometimes make them difficult to view under the microscope. A simple solution is an inexpensive handheld camera, which provides a small amount of magnification.

The MW1-LD2 works well for these basic applications. This camera connects directly with an included USB cable into the computer and includes software for capturing images, making measurements and labeling images. Typically the ambient light from a well lit room is plenty to illuminate the object.

Image of quartz captured with the MW1-LD2 digital camera.

Metal captured with the MW1-LD2 camera.

Aphids and Digital Microscopes

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Mon, 14 May 2012 23:49:00 +0000

The MW2-HD1 digital high school microscope provides the ability to view and capture images on the computer, with quality educational optics, at an affordable price.

Aphids are small, sap-sucking insects, sometimes referred to as plant lice. They can be some of the most destructive insects. From a zoological standpoint, the aphid is a very successful insect!

Aphids are popular in temperate zones and surprisingly don't do well in tropical areas.

Electronics Inspection Microscopes

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Tue, 08 May 2012 23:57:00 +0000

Electronics inspection microscopes combine high quality optics with rugged dependable microscope construction so that printed circuit board manufacturers can problem solve during production.

View more electronic inspection microscopes here.

Printed circuit board captured at 70x magnification.

Printed circuit board captured with C14+ microscope camera.

Electronics inspection microscopes typically provide magnification in the range of 5x-25x. Although occasionally an auxiliary lens will be added to provide higher magnification (shown in the image above at 70x magnification).

Fluid Channel under Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Fri, 04 May 2012 11:55:00 +0000

Fluid channel for a press button. Captured using a Jenoptik ProgRes microscope camera. Image courtesy of HSG-IMIT Microtechnology.

Brain Research

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:01:00 +0000

Dr. Axel Schleicher captured this cross section image of the brain while working for the Institute for Brain Research, University of Dusseldorf. Using a biological microscope and a ProgRes camera for excellent color reproduction and high resolution, this image was captured.

Front cut through the brain hemisphere of a Rhesus-Ape-Immune-histochemical presentation of NO-receptive Guanylylcyclasis.

Microscope Cameras and Resolution

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:38:00 +0000

Selecting the correct resolution for your microscope camera can sometimes be a difficult task. Generally a lower resolution image will look decent on a computer monitor. But if you try to print out a low resolution image and make it too large, it turns out pixelated.

View all microscope cameras here.

Here are some examples of microscope camera resolutions and the images you can print (at a high quality 300dpi) from each.

0.4 Megapixels (DCM1 microscope camera) 768 x567 pixels, prints 2.6" x 1.9"
1.3 Megapixels (DCM1SP microscope camera) 1280x1024 pixels, prints 4.3" x 3.4"
2.0 Megapixels (DCM2 microscope camera) 1600x1280 pixels, prints 5.3" x 4"
3.0 Megapixels (DCM3 microscope camera) 2048x1536 pixels, prints 6.8" x 5.1"
5.0 Megapixels (DCM5 microscope camera) 2592x1944 pixels, prints 8.6" x 6.5"
5.6 Megapixels (MW5CCD microscope camera) 2720x2048 pixels, prints 9" x 6.8"
7.0 Megapixels (PRC7 microscope camera) 3072x2304 pixels, prints 10.2" x 7.7"
12.5 Megapixels (PRMFscan microscope camera) 4080x3072 pixels, prints 13.6" x 10.2"

Depending on the size of the image you wish to print (at a good quality), choose your microscope camera above accordingly. If printing images is not a concern, a lower resolution camera should work well for viewing on screen images.

Diatoms

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:03:00 +0000

Diatoms are a major group of algae, and one of the most common forms of phytoplankton. Diatoms have only one cell although they do sometimes exist in colonies. Diatoms are encased within a unique cell wall made of silica (hydrated silicon dioxide) called a frustule.These frustules typically consist of two asymmetrical sides with a split between them.

Image of diatoms captured with the Meiji MT5300 biological laboratory microscope.

Evidence found in fossils suggests that they originated during or possibly before the early Jurassic Period. Diatom communities are often a popular tool for monitoring environmental conditions and are often used to study water quality.

Living diatoms are often found clinging to filamentous algae. Diatoms can be found in the form of a brown, slippery coating on submerged stones or twigs in a river. Additionally, the surface mud of a pond, ditch or lagoon will almost always have some diatoms in it. You can capture some by filling a jar with water and mud, wrapping it in black paper and letting direct sunlight fall on the surface of the water. Within a day, the diatoms will come to the top in a scum form and can be isolated. Then you can use either a biological lab microscope or even a student microscope to view the diatoms.

Textiles under Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:06:00 +0000

Microscope World was recently contacted by a manufacturer of a sophisticated textile fabric that is meant to wick moisture. This manufacturer needed to view both cross sections and full pieces of their sample fibers.

The microscope setup included the MT7200 reflected light metallurgical microscope. This microscope has high magnification of 50x, 100x, 200x and 500x, but still allows light to shine down through the objective lens, making it possible to view solid objects that do not allow light to pass through them.

Horizontal capture of a single textile fiber.

Cross section of a bunch of fibers.

Images were captured with a microscope camera and the included software. The USB microscope cameras allow you to view a live image on your computer directly from the microscope. These images can be captured and saved either before or after text is added to document them. The software can be calibrated with the microscope in order to perform accurate measurements.

Relay Device Under Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:54:00 +0000

Microscope World has a customer who manufactures relay devices. A relay is a device that takes a smaller source of electrical power and uses it to manually control a larger source of electrical power. Typically, a low voltage or low current source, which is more easily manageable with control circuits, sends a signal to energize an electromagnetic coil. When the coil is activated, the magnetic field moves a plunger type device which has contacts that serve as a switch for the larger voltage or current device. In essence, the contacts complete the path for the circuit and allows a load to begin to operate using the higher voltage or current that is supplied through the contacts' connections.

This customer needed to view their relay devices during the manufacturing process to look for defects or flaws.

Relay captured at 30x magnification.

Because the relay device is not microscopically small, a stereo microscope system was created for this customer. The system created included the following:

Meiji EMZ-8TR stereo zoom microscope on a lighted post stand using the DCM3 microscope camera and software. The software allows the end user to make measurements and label the image before saving it to a file for reference.

Amoeba Under Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:23:00 +0000

Amoeba are shapeless (they look like a big blob) unicellular organisms from the genus Protozoa.

Image of amoeba captured with the digital BA210 microscope at 100x magnification.

Image courtesy Pearson Scott Foresman.

An amoeba's cell's organelles and cytoplasm are enclosed by the membrane. Ameoba have one pseudopod used for navigation and movement. Each amoeba has one or more nuclei and a simple contractile vacuole to maintain osmotic equilibrium. Food enveloped by the amoeba is stored and digested in vacuoles.

Image of amoeba captured at 400x with a biological student microscope.

Biology Laboratory Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:51:00 +0000

Biological microscopes used for routine laboratory work, require high quality, durable brightfield objectives. The Meiji Techno MT4200 series microscope come equipped with Plan achromat infinity corrected optics that meet the quality standards of laboratories worldwide.

This stained biology sample was captured using the DK3000 3 mega pixel camera and the MT4300 laboratory microscope.

For a laboratory microscope, the most common objectives are Plan achromat, Phase contrast and Apochromat lenses. You can learn more about different types of objective lenses here.

Wasp Eye under Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:43:00 +0000

Insects are best viewed using a stereo microscope. Low magnification of 10x-40x is typically ideal for insects, flowers, or anything you might hold in the palm of your hand, but wish to view in more detail.

Parasitic wasps are used increasingly in agriculture for insect and pest control since they tend to prey mostly on pest insects and have little if any impact on crops.

There are actually two types of wasps: solitary wasps and social wasps. Much like their name suggests, adult solitary wasps live and operate alone, and most do not construct nests; all adult solitary wasps are fertile. By contrast, social wasps exist in colonies numbering up to several thousand individuals and build nests, but in some cases not all of the colony can reproduce. In some species, just the wasp queen and male wasps can mate, while the majority of the colony is made up of sterile female workers.

Image of a wasp eye captured at 40x magnification.

Most wasps have two pairs of wings, and the majority of wasps play no role in pollination. The exception being figs, which are pollinated by fig wasps.

Learn more about wasps here.

ASTM E112 Grain Counting

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:14:00 +0000

Industries that must meet specific grain sizing procedures such as ASTM E112 often use microscope eyepiece grain counting reticles. Test Method E 112 is one of the most widely cited ASTM standards. This method deals with the measurement of grain size when the grains are not deformed in shape, although it does contain some information about measurement of grain size when the grains have been elongated by processing.

Grain counting reticles fit inside the eyepiece of a microscope and will impose an image such as this one over the grain particles, making it easy to compare particle size and perform a count.

Learn more about the uses of grain counting reticles and the options available for purchase here.

Complete ASTM E112 Standard test methods can be found here.

Hair Under the Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:02:00 +0000

Microscope World has been working with a customer who creates hair extensions from human hair. This customer needs to be able to check the healthiness of the hair prior to creating the hair extensions. By using a metallurgical microscope, attached with a microscope camera, images of each strand of hair can be examined for damage.

Single strands of hair were captured at 700x magnification under the MT8100 metallurgical microscope.

One of the hardest parts of viewing the strands of hair at such high magnification, is the ability to flatten the hair strand. Since each strand of hair has a circular shaft, the hair must be pulled tight in order to get it in focus across the field of view. Rather than trying to place the hair between a slide and cover slip (which causes unwanted reflection) the easiest way to flatten each hair strand is by pulling each end tight while holding it under the microscope.

Three strands of hair, with the center one being out of focus since it is on a different focal plane.

Blood Cells and Nuclei

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:40:00 +0000

Human blood cells are best viewed under a biological microscope with a minimum of 400x magnification.

Red blood cells are primarily for carrying oxygen and carbon dioxide through the use of hemoglobin. A red blood cell life span is about 120 days. White blood cells are cells of the immune system that are involved in defending the body against both foreign materials and infectious diseases. The average life of a white blood cell in the human body is only 3-4 days.

Image of red and while blood cells under a microscope using a blue stain.

At 400x magnification the nuclei of a blood cell is visible. At 1000x magnification you will not necessarily be able to view particles you could not see at 400x, the cells will simply fill up more of your microscope field of view.

Measuring with the Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 13:14:00 +0000

The best and most accurate way to make measurements with your microscope is by using an eyepiece reticle that has been calibrated with a stage micrometer.

Eyepiece reticles are available in a variety of options for measuring including grids, rulers, cross lines and even specialized reticles for measuring particles or thickness of materials. An eyepiece reticle is a circular piece of glass with a ruler or measuring symbol etched on the glass. The reticle is held in the microscope eyepiece with a retaining ring. When looking through the microscope the reticle image is imposed upon the specimen viewed through the microscope.

In order to make accurate measurements, you need to make a calculation based on the microscope objective lens used. The distance between the lines on the reticle changes depending on which objective lens was used. The formula looks like this:

Reticle division / Objective Lens = Distance Between Lines on Reticle

An example:
If you are using a 10mm reticle with 100 divisions the reticle division = 0.1mm

So the formula looks like this when using the 4x objective lens:
0.1 / 4 = 0.025mm is the distance between each line.

If you were using the 100x objective lens:
0.1 / 100 = 0.001mm is the distance between each line.

Learn more about making accurate measurements here. And for information on calibrating your microscope using a stage micrometer click here.

Tonsils under the Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:33:00 +0000

Human tonsils are the body's first line of defense against ingested or inhaled foreign pathogens. When tonsils become enlarged or inflamed (tonsillitis) they are sometimes removed. The fundamental immunological roles of the tonsils have yet to be understood fully.

This is an image of a human tonsil captured at 400x magnification with the MT4300 biological microscope with the aperture diaphragm closed (allowing less light on the specimen).

Same specimen, but with the aperture all the way open (a bit too much light on the specimen).

Same specimen, with the aperture adjusted to allow the right amount of light through the microscope condenser.

Sodium Hydroxide under the Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:03:00 +0000

Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is also known as lye or caustic soda. Sodium hydroxide is used in many industries, particularly as a strong chemical base in the manufacturing of paper and pulp, textiles, soap and detergent and as drain cleaners.

In its pure form, sodium hydroxide is a solid white substance available in flakes or granules or as a half-saturated solution. It readily absorbs carbon dioxide from the air and should be stored in an airtight container. Molten sodium hydroxide is a strong base, but the high temperatures required to create molten form limit its applications. A sodium hydroxide solution will leave a yellow stain on fabric and paper.

Captured with the MT9300 polarizing microscope at 40x magnification using the Infinity 2-1 microscope camera, this image of sodium hydroxide was taken of a powder form of the substance.

Same polarizing microscope setup as above and using the same sodium hydroxide sample, but captured at 400x magnification.

Measure with a Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:39:00 +0000

Microscope World recently had a customer that produces plastic films used for food packaging. The customer needed to evaluate the 100um size perforations in the film in order to test the strength and quality of their product. They also wanted to measure the perforations to ensure they were the correct size.

This is what the perforation in the film looks like at 380x magnification.

In order to capture a quality image at 380x magnification a metallurgical microscope is usually required. However, financial constraints can make this microscope out of reach for some customers. A good alternative to a metallurgical microscope is a video inspection system using a macro zoom lens.

Microscope World configured a system using a macro zoom lens on a lighted post stand along with the Infinity 2-1 Monochrome microscope camera (DK1-CCD). With the magnification pushed up to 380x images were captured and then the measurements shown below were made using the software provided with the camera.

Measuring the perforation inner and outer distances.

Measuring inside diameter.

If you have a specific item that you need to view and make measurements, Microscope World is happy to put together a custom quote and capture images of samples prior to making a microscope purchase.

Polarizing Microscope MT9300 Images

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:04:00 +0000

The Meiji MT9300 polarizing microscope provides high quality optics with a full-featured polarizing microscope.

Binocular MT9200 polarizing microscope.

All MT9000 polarizing microscopes come standard with 1/4 wave plate, Bertrand lens and first order red plate. Optional Senarmont compensator and quartz wedges are available.

The microscope stage is a ceramic coated, 360 degree rotatable fully indexed stage with vernier and stage clips.

Litric Acid captured at 100x with the MT9300 polarizing microscope using the Lumenera Infinity 2-1 CCD microscope camera.

Litric Acid captured at 100x magnification, same setup as listed above.

Litric Acid captured at 200x magnification, same setup as listed above.

Litric Acid captured at 400x magnification, same setup as listed above.

Hobby Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:36:00 +0000

Microscopes can be useful for many different hobbies - from model trains to coin collecting or even needle point stitching, microscopes can make the entire experience easier and more fun. Hobby microscopes provide low magnification for viewing more detail in art projects or small pieces.

Magnifiers allow the user to work under a lighted magnifying glass, putting less strain on the eyes.

A stereo zoom microscope will allow you to view small parts at a low magnification, and zoom in to view more details.

This image of a quarter was captured with an inexpensive digital microscope.

Both coin and stamp collectors can view and capture images on a computer screen with the MW1-LD1 digital low power microscope at 20x and 40x magnification.

Whether you are viewing insects and flowers, or a rare collection of coins, a hobby microscope might make your daily work more enjoyable. If you are unsure what microscope you need, give Microscope World a call at 1-800-942-0528 and a specialist will be happy to assist you.

Sugar under a Polarizing Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:36:00 +0000

In the past we have looked at sugar crystals under a stereo microscope. Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates - made up mostly of sucrose, fructose and lactose. Microscope World placed some sugar crystals under the MT9300 polarizing microscope and using the Jenoptik Speed XT Core5 camera captured the following images. The 1/4 wave plate, polarizer and analyzer allowed the bright colors that you see below to be accentuated under the microscope.

Sugar under the polarizing microscope at 100x magnification.

100x magnification.

200x magnification.

400x magnification.

Fluoboric Acid Under Microscope

noreply@blogger.com (Microscope World) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:38:00 +0000

Fluoboric acid (HBF4) is the principal precursor to fluoroborate salts, which are typically prepared by acid-base reactions. The inorganic salts are intermediates in the manufacture of flame-retardant materials and glazing frits, and in electrolytic generation of boron. HBF4 is also used in aluminum etching and acid pickling.

Microscope World captured these images of fluoboric acid using the MT9300 polarizing microscope.

200x magnification.

Polarization allows the colors of the fluoboric acid to show up under the microscope.

400x magnification.