Beginner Microscopes

Written by microscopes

Saturday, 04 August 2007

Information on beginner and student microscopes. Learn what are common beginner mistakes on using the microscope and general info on buying a microscope.

Student and Beginner Microscopes

The enjoyment of these beauties need not be expensive. There are on the market a number of small microscopes, really good instruments, that cost comparatively little money. True, these microscopes are not extremely powerful, nor need they be, for most of the work to be dealt with in this book will require comparatively low magnifications.

Most beginners in microscopy make the mistake of using powers that are too high and, as a result, they comprehend very little of what they see. Magnifications of 50, 75, 100, 200, 350 and 500 times will answer for most purposes. More to be sought in a microscope than magnifying power is resolving power, which is the ability of a lens to separate fine details and make them visible. This is a variable quality which depends upon several factors, as will be explained later. Of course, if the student has the money to spend he should by all means buy a professional microscope, for the various attachments and accessories which may be secured for such an instrument enormously increase its field of usefulness. But he should not let the lack of such a microscope deter him from the enjoyment to be found in the use of a less pretentious instrument. The author's first work was done with an old school microscope which was limited to 1 50 diameters, but the optical system was good and it provided endless hours of pleasant recreation.

In addition to the microscope, other apparatus and equipment will be required. This is to be used in the collection, preparation and mounting of subjects for examination, as well as for viewing and photographing them. Most accessories can and should be made at home by the student, not only to save money, but also because the full enjoyment of any hobby comes only to him who does as much of the incidental work as possible. Those of us who really get pleasure out of our microscopes are those who take up the work as a hobby. It is not a business, hence we should not spend money on it as though it were. Make as much of your equipment as your ability and facilities permit. A hobby is an interest to which we can turn for relaxation. It is the expression of a natural desire to be doing something different from our regular work. For genuine relaxation it must be something interesting, and, to make it enduring, it must be active, active as distinguished from static, such as merely collecting things.

What could be a more active hobby than microscopy! Embracing every phase of nature, material for examination is always present everywhere. New accessories may be added from lime to time. If one line of study loses in interest, there are others waiting to be investigated, each revealing new aspects, each worthy of attention, arid all marvelous beyond words.

To tell the student in the microscopic field where to go for materials, what to do with them when he has them, and what the magnifying power of the microscope reveals to him, is the purpose of this book. It does not pretend to be a complete text book of microscopy, but merely a guide to set the wandering footsteps of the student on the right path, so that he may proceed with greater intelligence toward the selection of those branches of a broad subject that seem to him most interesting. The principal reason for the book is to describe the methods of photomicrography. Before a picture of a specimen may be made, however, the slide must be prepared, so it is necessary to describe the methods by which material is prepared for the microscope. Also, in order to make the student familiar with the technique of photomicroscopy, a chapter has been included which deals with the optics, care and adjustment of the microscope, as well as a short discussion of light, the theory of which, it is hoped, will clarify certain mistaken ideas about magnification.