- #1
DarioC
- 255
- 19
A while back I managed to get (2) very nice surplus Nikon microscopes from UC Davis (CA). Since then I have taken several grass root and compost samples from my yard and mulch pile and cultured them in glass bottles with purified drinking water.
I wind up with all kinds of life forms that are not too difficult to classify, but often I get thousands of VERY small, fast-moving life forms. By very small I mean I have to get out the immersion oil and to do a setup for 1000X in order to see any detail. At 400X they are essentially small dots zooming about. At 1000X I can just see that they are somewhat elongated and have just a few dark round spots in their interior.
It takes about a week plus for them to come out in the "culture," but when they do a single small drop under a cover glass has what must be a thousand of them. I get no indication that they are juveniles of some of the other larger life in the jars, as the number of larger ones does not increase over time.
I'm a retired electronics guy and the last time I took biology was in high school, so I could really use any information as to what these are or any guidance as to where I could go for further information on such things. Thus far the photos and info online don't seem to match with these little guys.
Any help appreciated, and by the way, I am having a good time using the microscopes; they are really beautiful pieces of equipment from the '70's.
DC
I wind up with all kinds of life forms that are not too difficult to classify, but often I get thousands of VERY small, fast-moving life forms. By very small I mean I have to get out the immersion oil and to do a setup for 1000X in order to see any detail. At 400X they are essentially small dots zooming about. At 1000X I can just see that they are somewhat elongated and have just a few dark round spots in their interior.
It takes about a week plus for them to come out in the "culture," but when they do a single small drop under a cover glass has what must be a thousand of them. I get no indication that they are juveniles of some of the other larger life in the jars, as the number of larger ones does not increase over time.
I'm a retired electronics guy and the last time I took biology was in high school, so I could really use any information as to what these are or any guidance as to where I could go for further information on such things. Thus far the photos and info online don't seem to match with these little guys.
Any help appreciated, and by the way, I am having a good time using the microscopes; they are really beautiful pieces of equipment from the '70's.
DC