Accu-scope Alignment
We had a great workshop at the new Gwinnett Tech Bioscience facility. Thank-you Dr. Gibson, Jenny and everyone for your time and energy! The first part of the morning I gave a brief description of how MVA Scientific Consultants used light and electron microscopy to solve problems that deal with particles, dusts and other materials that can only be characterized and identified with a microscope…they are simply to small to be examined any other way. After a short break, we took the covers off of the (brand new) compound microscopes that were in the lab and proceeded to learn what proper illumination is and why it is so important. Proper illumination is important to obtain full resolution, a misaligned microscope can not be used to image the fine structures that define small particles. Remember to have a slide available to start with. Focus on the slide using a 10X or lower magnification objective. Adjust the interpupillary distance for your eyes if you are using a binocular microscope. Adjust the ocular focus, one eye at a time so that each eye is focused on the same object on the slide. If your microscope has a condenser, close the field diaphragm, center and focus the image of the field diaphragm in the field of view. Repeat with the next highest power objective. You should have a decent image at this point. Preparing your own temporary slides is easy….you need glass microscope slides, glass coverslips, water, olive oil, toothpicks and samples to mount for examination. The technique for imaging with a transmitted light microscope applies to object that are transparent…many powders, soils, sands and kitchen ingredients can be viewed with the light microscope with a little practice. Add a drop of olive oil (refractive index @ 1.47) to the center of the microscope slide. Touch your sample (plenty of pollen around right now!) with the toothpick and scoop a small amount of sample (less is more). Mix the sample into the oil and cover with the coverslip. Focus at 10X (or lower) magnification and enjoy the view! More later….