Day 17 (Bonus Edition!): I've had my microscope since I was in my twenties, so it really shouldn't have come as any surprise that I couldn't get the optics clean no matter how hard I tried, so after I'd worked on it pointlessly for an hour and a half, what this year's Christmas-present-to-self should became clear. I spent the next several days comparing brands and models, studying options, coming to the realization that technology had outpaced me by several decades, and deciding that if I wanted to be serious about this, I'd better "get with the program," as they say. I started with a rough budget which, in the end, wound up being slightly more than double what I'd planned, but in addition to ordering a better grade of microscope, I also purchased a camera attachment for it.
I was more than a little nervous about installing the software; nothing ever seems to go the way it should when I mess with computers, but within ten minutes of the time the 'scope arrived, I was capturing my first images from a selection of prepared slides. The more I fiddled with the focus knobs, the more I realized just how feeble my old 'scope had been. I have much greater control, much better focus, and the optics are crystal clear (even if the prepared slides seem to have included miscellaneous grit and fuzzies). The tungsten lamp is bright (my old 'scope employed a mirror). I have yet to install the second, more powerful eyepiece! These photos were taken on 40-400x magnification. The second eyepiece boosts that to 1000x! Look out, lichens! Mama's got a brand-new toy!
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