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Posts Tagged ‘microscope parts’

The world is beautiful – you know that. As a child, you were amazed at how wonderful the color of the rainbow is. You were even amazed at the thought of night and day.

Then, when Science class came, these magnificent natural phenomena are made more splendid when you learned that night and day is because of the Earth’s rotation. You marvel at yourself when you knew that rainbows are not because of magic, but of light’s wavelengths passing through raindrops.

Still, there are so many things that you have no answer yet. There are still so many things that you need to know. Like, what is numerical aperture? What are Achromat and Plan-Apochromat Objectives?

And of course, there’s that “small side -” the side that you don’t understand because you simply cannot see it using your naked eyes alone. You talk about atoms and molecules but you have not really come close to seeing them. Good thing though that the world came up with the microscope.

Yes, through the microscope, the world became more visible – and more understandable. Wait – there’s more good news! You can now make use of microscopy accessories. When you cannot afford to buy those very expensive digital or electron microscopes, you can always use microscopy accessories instead.

Here are some of them:

Pocket Microscope

This is one of the microscopy accessories that does not live up to its size. The pocket microscope maybe small but it is a powerful one. This is also sometimes referred to as a “pen microscope” because it comes with a pen clip. As such, you can conveniently clip this onto your shirt pocket for a more dramatic effect. And of course, you won’t have any problems regarding magnification because pocket microscopes come in different magnifications to suit your every need.

Microfilm viewer

If you are confronted with situations when you need to see through a microfilm or even an x-ray film, you sometimes panic because naturally, you cannot really see through it without the use of special gadgets. Good thing though that today, you can already seek the aid of a microfilm viewer. This small accessory makes use of high quality glass optics and comes with a handle. This is also one of those microscopy accessories that considers its user: the microfilm viewer is specifically designed to minimize eye fatigue – a consequence if you work for long periods of time.

Flexible Stand Loupe

This accessory is made up of a loupe (a small magnifying glass), a flexible arm and a solid stand. This is indeed ideal for inspecting specimen on a working table where you need both of your hands free. The arm is flexible enough for any position. Therefore, you can continue to inspect a specimen while maintaining good posture and taking advantage of the best lighting conditions.

So you see, it’s not only the microscope that can give you a “better view on things.” There are a lot of microscopy accessories out there that can do the same job of aiding your eye. They are cheaper, lighter and smaller.

So the next time that you are confronted with a “viewing problem,” don’t go chasing microscopes directly. Try one of the microscopy accessories mentioned above. You’ll see that they’re equally great in bringing you the beauty of the smaller things in this world.

CanScope – complete solution for all your microscopy needs.
Contact: 1-877-56SCOPE(72673) or info@CanScope.ca

Looking for microscopy accessories in Toronto? Visit CanScope.ca. Click on their website as well to learn about numerical aperture and Achromat and Plan-Apochromat Objectives in Toronto.

In 1953, the world recognized the scientific genius that is the phase contrast microscope. Forget high useful – it wasn’t just useful, it was crucial for actual live observations of intra-cellular processes like cell division.

Medical and biological sciences research are now focused on the real time, real life observation of living organisms to analyze its components and understand life better than we already do. Specifically designed for live specimens, this type of microscope enables observation of virtually invisible occurrences within a cell.

Obviously more advanced than the typical light microscope, this instrument uses the various refractive abilities of different objects to heighten the contrast between colorless and transparent structures. Under this powerful type of microscopy, specimens remain alive as they do not need to be stained – colored or dyed – to distinguish characteristics.

Light Waves and Visible Contrasts

Light waves peak and valley in regular intervals. The moment they line up, they’re said to be in phase; otherwise they’re said to be out of phase. This basic understanding of light waves is the key to how a phase contrast microscope works — it influences the optical path of light through transparent or colorless objects under observation.

Light waves passing through transparent portions of the specimen is slower then the uninfluenced light. To cause a difference in brightness, a transparent phase-plate mounted on the microscope increases the phase to half a wavelength, making the transparent object outshine its surroundings. This unique feature of phase contrast microscope makes it an indispensable tool in medical and biological observations of living cells.

How It Works

A phase contrast microscope makes use of two light sources — one under your specimen and another that is reflected off your specimen. Now, light passes through any transparent object but gets reflected off the surface of a solid, colorless object. When these light waves condense on a lens placed just above your specimen, it is easy to see if the light waves are in or out of their phase. This phase condenser lens on this type of microscope is analogous to the fluorescent filters in fluorescence microscopes; both make light differentiation possible.

Advances in Biomedical Microscopy Technologies

The latest in biomedical microscopy is the introduction of infinity-corrected phase contrast microscopes. Over the last decades, the largest manufacturers of research and/or professional grade microscopes have introduced this new type of optical system into various microscopy modules. This technology places another lens between the objective and the eyepiece and sets the object image to infinity. This correction makes it possible to introduce auxiliary components in the microscope.

This integrated capability makes imaging a an exciting part of the research. Now, you can capture, store, display — virtually do anything — with images of your specimen. With the flexibility of integrated digital technology, you can capture full color photographs or videos of your specimen and display, store and retrieve them from your computer. These capabilities produce virtually the same images on eyepieces and photo ports, allow you to hook up various types of cameras on to the microscope, which would definitely make training and demonstration more real life.

CanScope – complete solution for all your microscopy needs.
Contact: 1-877-56SCOPE(72673) or info@CanScope.ca

Looking for infinity corrected objectives in toronto or phase contrast accessories for microscopes? Whether you need that, a microscope filter, or something else, Canscope.ca has something for you. Check them out!