Well groovers, most of you know how I like to get up close to things for a lot of my shots...well, today I pulled out my old microscope to take that one step further...this is one of Alpha's areas, so he'll probably laugh when he hears my set-up. Quite simply, I held my digital camera over the eye-piece of the Microscope and focused through the LCD screen...and you know what...***it worked!*** (In an amatuerish way) The Microscope is a dissecting one with zoom capabilities, but it's a bit hard to work out the magnification, which is why I haven't specified that...I would say probably anywhere from 80x-120x , but I could be wrong...hope you enjoy my very amatuer efforts at this!

This one has a chook feather study and then some views of a prepared slide of a cross-section of a spinal cord (no doubt some poor wee beastie's) In the bottom left image I adjusted the colour balance in Photoshop to digitally "stain" the image, in the hope of bringing out a bit more detail. The bottom right image is a close-up of the left...you can *almost* see the individual neurons crossing and connecting. Once again, thanks for indulging me! :-)>

Oh, thanks Alpha, while I was fiddling with the last post you must have looked in! I'm going to look for more interesting subjects to view, this is fun!

Very good results, PC.. I took a microbiology class back in college, and we had equipment that was supposed to be specifically for stuff like this. Except the technicians could never get it set up for us to have pictures sharp or crisp enough for our reports, so we ended up drawing everything by hand for the whole term. :P - darkpen

Wow, these are neat - even for an incredibly "non-science" type like me! :-) Do you suppose it would work sort of the "other way round" - focus through the eyepiece of a telescope for pics of the stars?

Good question Sweet, next clear night I'm going to try just that! There are many professional CCD cameras that you can attach to telescopes, but I can't afford them. The other option is adapters that allow you to connect your SLR directly into the eye-piece holder of the telescope...this involves long exposures and very accurate tracking of the astronomical objects movement through the sky.

Very nice results!! I was toying with the idea of buying a children's microscope purely to try this, you've beat me to it!! lol. Never mind, I'm confused enough by the world we live in normally, never mind opening up another one..... (",)

Very cool! It does open up another world, doesn't it. I find it fascinating

These are amazing both of you (less of the amatuer PC), nothing I like better than getting up close with my camera, now I want a microscope : )

Wow....cool idea Punky.....and they came out great!

Dang! This just reminded me that I spotted an old B&L stereo-scope (non-zoom) stashed away at work that nobody's used in years! I'm gonna ask the boss for it. Thanks Punk. Joe

Oh, I love looking through stereo-microscopes! They really give you the feeling that you're exploring an other-wordly landscpe! Thanks everyone for your feedback. Mike, open up all the doors you can! Keeping them closed doesn't make us any less confused, and you never know what enlightenment may be found beyond the next closed door we open... Thus endeth my philosophical waffle for the day... LOL Have FUN all! :-)>

Great experimentation, Cameron, and what excellent results! I especially like the feather. Hey, maybe you could find a willing butterfly; they have awesome wing scales. :)

The other option is adapters that allow you to connect your SLR directly into the eye-piece holder of the telescope...this involves long exposures and very accurate tracking of the astronomical objects movement through the sky. I think these adapters require removing the SLR lens? But if you are getting such nice results with hand-holding, I bet you could rig something up with PVC pipe to hold your digital in place. Always wanted to try something like this, but too much light pollution in Chicago to make it worthwhile.

That's true, they do require the removal of the lens, the adapter is specific to the kind of lens-mount you have (Bayonet, Threaded etc) The PVC pipe sounds like a good idea, but for images like stars, I think I might need more pixels! Thanks Misha! As for light pollution - I fear that light pollution may get so bad that children of the future will never know the splendour of the heavens....