Cacao flower, up close and personal

[Daintree]

Santa brought me a USB microscope for Christmas!  Here is the first picture I took, of one of my cacao flowers!



Merry Christmas!

Carolyn

[fruitlovers]

Nice. How much magnification does it have? Is it really a microscope?

[Daintree]

Yep, it is a real microscope, albeit low strength. 60-250X magnification. Too low to see bacteria, but great for bugs.  You adjust the magnification by moving it closer to your subject. Focusing is with a twisting motion.  It has an adjustable light, too.  It takes 1600x1200 snapshots and 640x480 videos. I plugged it into my USB port and set it up in about 45 seconds.
It is made by Plugable, and works on Mac or Windows computers.  It has been really fun so far!  Very tiny and compact.
I have been viewing spider mites and other insects, and have been looking for water bears (tardigrades) in the moss growing on the north side of my greenhouse foundation, but haven't found any yet.  The first one I find, I am naming him Bob!
I should mention that for people with poor vision, and no binocular vision, like myself, being able to see the magnified object on a big computer screen instead of trying to look through an eyepiece is a HUGE advantage!

Carolyn

[fruitlovers]

Sounds good. Price?

[brian]

Hey thats really neat.

I also have poor and monocular vision.   I have a fancy high power microscope I got for cheap on craigslist, but taking pictures is not easy.  I ended up getting a clip that holds a cell phone camera in place over the eyepiece but it still requires lots of fiddling.  I was trying to find an eyepiece that connects directly to a PC but they are insanely expensive ($1000+ i think)



Spent a lot of time watching spider mites on a leaf to see if the predatory mites I introduced were working.  Is one eating another?  Are they just mating?  Couldnt tell.

[Daintree]

The one I got was super cheap, under $50. There are a wide variety to choose from, just search Amazon for USB microscope. I am hooked!

Carolyn

[ScottR]

Wow nice pic Carolyn, thanks for sharing your Christmas microscope with us looking forward to some amazing pic's from you

[Meyveler]

Wow, super photo stands interesting