What microscope

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VEG

Queen Bee
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As in the title whats the most cost effective (read cheapest) microscope capable of finding nosema. i have been looking on e-bay and it is a bit bewildering. Links to anything that fits the bill would be good.
Many thanks.
 
Veg
I'll get back to you with info as soon as I can

Regards;
 
Hi VEG,

My apologies for not getting back to you sooner, but we have just had one of our dogs die and have gone a bought a puppy.

Right Microscopy.

When using a microscope at our level the term is ?Light Microscopy? as we only magnify to a maximum of about X1600. Anything above that and its electron microscopy.

So what as beekeepers do we use microscopes for?

To test for bee diseases,
(A) AFB ? EFB Yes X1000
(A) Nosema Yes X400
(B) Acarine Yes X20-50
(A) Malpighaimoeba Yes X400
(C) Viruses No X1000>

(A) Pollen Yes X400>

(B) Internal organs yes X20-40 (X100>)
(B) External organs yes X20-40 (X100>)

Types of microscopes.

For small magnification we use a Stereo microscope which is used for dissection work. Ideally it should have a magnification capability of X5 ? X30 with eyepieces of X5 or X10. Lighting is from above and (below but this is not essential). A good working distance from the objective to the base is needed as one will be handling instruments.
Stereo microscopes will give a good 3D image of the object.
Uses; (B).

For all other uses a Compound microscope is required. With this type of microscope it must have 4 objectives X4 X10 X40 X100, with eyepieces of X10 or X12.5 or X15.
The stage should be a mechanical stage with graticules running on the ?X? and ?Y? lines. The remainder of a compound microscope comes as standard and there are accessories that can be purchased for various other manipulations.

I have not mentioned price as you get what you pay for.

So VEG you wanted to test for Nosema so you would require a compound microscope.

I have seen other children?s ocular microscope that can magnify to about X500 and can be fitted to a PC or Laptop. I do not know what they are like for resolution etc.

Hope this helps.

Regards;
 
two types of microscopes

The first microscope is my compound which is a trinocular (three seeing tubes).

Myscope.jpg



this one is a typical dissecting microscope.

XTLV_red_angL1.jpg


Any questions feel free to ask away.

Regards;
 
Thanks for the reply you have cleared up a few of the questions i wanted to ask there :)
 

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