I just bought a microscope!

Woohoo, got an Olympus with a phase contrast kit for messing around at home. Looking forward to some "up close" encounters with my little yeast friends.

Now to find a cheap hemacytometer on ebay. And some stains.

Sounds cool, What were you planning on using it for? Yeast cell counts? Checking to see if your cultures are pure? Just ogling yeasts.

PantherCity said:

Sounds cool, What were you planning on using it for? Yeast cell counts? Checking to see if your cultures are pure? Just ogling yeasts.

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Yes and yes (hopefully I can see bacteria). I've been wanting to do some viability studies. All sorts of ideas here. I'm sure it's all been done before, but not by me

Scope's highest objective is 40x (phase contrast). That's 400x with the 10x eyepieces, so yeast is easy. I hope to be able to see cell morphology. I plan on getting a 100x oil immersion objective in the next week.

I also want to do some micro-photography (more insects than cellular creatures).

I have kids in biology (high school and college), so maybe we can collaborate on some school research projects.

I hope it has a mechanical stage!!

I have a microscope and have checked out my yeasties before. It's pretty cool. Good luck with your projects!

passedpawn said:

I also want to do some micro-photography (more insects than cellular creatures).

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Technology has dramatically changed the world of microphotography. When my new puppy started peeing excessively it was a simple matter to get a sample, spin it down, put a drop on a slide and take a photo with the mirror of the camera locked up and "composition" and exposure easily monitored on the LCD. Then pop the card out of the camera and into the iPad and off to the vet. The vet's jaw kind of dropped but hey, it's 2011.

Brewerforlife said:

I hope it has a mechanical stage!!

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Yes, it's an Olympus CH2 with an XY stage. (I was in a couple of bidding wars on a BH2, but kept losing).

You, sir, are a Geek!

That is a very high compliment coming from me. I'm impressed by you going beyond the extra mile! Please let us know the results of what you find and what kind of cell counts you get from various strains and starter sizes!

ajdelange said:

Technology has dramatically changed the world of micropjhotography. When my new puppy started peeing excessively it was a simple matter to get a sample, spin it down, put a drop on a slide and take a photo with the mirror of the camera locked up and "composition" and exposure easily monitored on the LCD. Then pop the card out of the camera and into the iPad and off to the vet. The vet's jaw kind of dropped but hey, it's 2011.

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Yea, that's very funny. I really wanted a trinocular, but those heads are quite expensive. I found a guy online who makes eyepiece adapters, probably get one of those for my camera until I can get a regular trinoc head.

Here's a great site with a great forum for this kind of thing. Very very cool.

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=14&sid=4d42298234b7aefd110863fe21f04dc9

If you do get an immersion objective I hope you will report back here on how you like it. I haven't used one in years because they are such a PITA, especially with phase contrast, and, despite the oil, the NA's are still small.

And yes, that's a neat site.

Just closing the loop on this thread, I got the scope and started looking at yeast. I probably should have continued posting in this thread. Oh well.

Technology has dramatically changed the world of microphotography. When my new puppy started peeing excessively it was a simple matter to get a sample, spin it down, put a drop on a slide and take a photo with the mirror of the camera locked up and "composition" and exposure easily monitored on the LCD. Then pop the card out of the camera and into the iPad and off to the vet. The vet's jaw kind of dropped but hey, it's 2011.

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Amazing anecdote!