Calling all Poindexters: see what I found

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petek

petek

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Now this is waaaay out of my league. I was haunting Goodwill as usual today and saw this microscope sitting on a shelf. Not that they never have microscopes there but they're usually kids toys or small school type ones. Anyways when I got looking at this thing I thought to myself, self this not a toy but looks to be more professional. I figured what the heck am I gonna do with it and put it back on the shelf but my gut got the better of me and I went back and paid for it, a princely sum of $10. From just looking at the web it appears to be a Meade 9600 Biological scope, actually it says Meade on it, and it still for sale new at $599. It's got neat stereoscopic eyepiece that rotates 360 deg. an x-y axis doo hickey for moving your slide around on the slide table, and more little adjustments than I've ever seen on a microscope. Now what am I gonna do with it.. I could try swabbing my counters and looking for bacteria I guess.
 
Ah....Junior Year....

We used those EXACT microscopes my Junior Year of High School. My science teacher got the school to order like 30 of them, and he was very proud of them. We were absolutely not allowed to touch them. He adjusted everything himself and then we could look through it as long as we had our hands behind our backs.

Anywho it was very....precise. I remember thinking how sharp and clean the cells looked when we examined them. I also loved the power switch (cool metal switch).

Mr. Borger would flip if he found out someone got one for $10!
 
Get some slides & cover slips (the latter are very thin square glass that goes on top of the specimen). Also get an exacto knife or a surgical scissors.

Then go out in the garden and find some thin new leaves, flower petals, and perhaps a few drops of water from a puddle that's been sitting for a few days. Next time you get a small cut, a droplet of your own blood. A quarter-inch square of thin paper. Some dust you swabbed off the kitchen counter with a Q-tip. A couple of pieces of sawdust, or grains of sand, or scrapings from a piece of brick or concrete.

Each of these makes a very interesting slide, though you have to prep the vegetation by snipping a small square, for example 1/4" square.

Adjust carefully. Look closely for a while and let it sink in. Fastest way I know of to see God, particularly observing what goes on in the cells of a leaf.

Next assignment: find a decent telescope and take a look at the other end of the spectrum of scale.

By the way, one light-year is about 5.9 trillion miles. The cloud of matter and energy that makes up the known universe is presently estimated to be 150 billion light years in diameter. Whether or not space is truly infinite beyond that cloud is a very interesting subject for contemplation. But first you have to get a sense of the size of that cloud and the different meanings of the word "infinite."
 
Cool find for $10

I love microscopes! The endless possibilities of things to look at!

Hours of fun!!!

Shoot...I'm moving to Canada, you always find cool bargins up there....we have nothing but overpriced rusty junk here!
 
Petek

Forgot to add...

Look at a grain of salt under one of those,
IIRC, they are actually in the shape of a cube.

Have fun!
 
Salt...

not just "table" salt, but Kosher salt, pretzel salt, fleur-de-sel from France, and the Hawa'iian red salt.

The most awesome is the English Malden salt. It's actually pyrimid(sp) in shape.

I am so very freaking envious of the cooooooool stuff you find, Pete.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 

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