I recently went and bought myself a USB microscope. I was planning on saving up for a proper light microscope myself, but since they’re so expensive, I was very happy to be told that it could become a christmas present. Of course, me being the impatient bloke I am – and with impending nature study commencing soon (tomorrow, actually) – I went and took a midstep and purchased a USB one. It’s only capable of 200x magnification, but that’s plenty for me to be getting on with for now. And, as you can see below, it’s results are more than passable for a fun wee hobby.
One of my initial reasons for wanting a microscope now is because I want to practice drawing things under magnification. My attempts at doing so, all those years ago the first time I went to Uni, were, well, crap. One instruction stuck with me, though: draw what you see, not what the textbook tells you you should see. I was hoping to start drawing cells and such as they appear irl, so to speak. Of course, at 200x only the very largest of cells show up, and not with any real detail.
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But, hey! Using this is helping me get a better grasp on scale. For example, I was rather surprised to discover that sperm cells are visible at only 200x. As I watched their motion on the computer screen, and the sheer scale of their number hit home… it was one of the most… terrifying moments of my life. However, I’m not quite prepared to share that video with the blogosphere, just yet.
