Male fruit fly under the microscope.

Drosophila fruit fly enlarged 40x (top) and 250x (bottom).
Ever since I was in grade 9 I loved microscopes.  I would spend countless hours at school before it began, after it ended, and at lunch peering through their depths at whatever I could scrape up.  Mostly it was aquatic critters I found in the biological science's aquarium that I maintained.  It provided me with an unending supply of protists, rotifers, annelids, and insects to examine.  That passion carried on through my adulthood as, over the years, I have collected a number of microscopes.

My first microscope was found at an auction.  I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into but the thrill hit me and I got it for $100.  It came with a wooden case, had three objectives, and a single 5x ocular lens.  The quality was, I discovered, not great.  It did get me going though.  Later I saw one in a doctor's office.  A better version of the one I had, it had 4 objectives and binocular 10x ocular lenses.  It had a lot of dust on it, so I approached its owner and bought it also for $100.  It was markedly better; I combined the two microscopes into one by picking the best parts of both.

Although my images had improved with my new acquisition they were not quite up to snuff.  With the time at home I have had lately, a by-product of Covid-19, I have been searching the internet for a better setup.  Low and behold I came across an old Zeiss binocular microscope with five objectives and a wide-field pair of 10x Zeiss oculars.  It was missing a power unit for the light, but outside of that it was is very good shape.  I put a bid in for it and got it a few days later; it came a couple of days ago.

I have to tell you the quality of the objectives and ocular lenses makes quite a difference.  I am using an external light source to illuminate the subject from above.  This works well in some instances, particularly if the subject is thick and light doesn't pass through it well.  I used the fruit fly above from a prepared slide and attached my camera.  The results were very good.  I am looking forward to getting my new power supply.  It is on order and should be here in a week or two.

The two red bulges on the head are the insect's eyes.  The protrusion coming off the head to the right is the fly's proboscis.  I love the detail from the coarse hairs and the fine hairs from the eye's facets.  There is very little depth of field; that can be corrected using focus stacking, but for the moment I just wanted to enjoy what my new toy can do.  It's wonderful!

Thanks for reading.   www.ericspix.com   Eric Svendsen


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