Brock Microscope

Jasper only wanted one thing for Christmas:  a microscope.  He's become very interested in the world of the very small, and he just couldn't think of anything he'd like better.  Selecting one might have been a terrifically daunting task for me.  Fortunately, I saw a post recently on a homeschool list about the Brock microscope, which was immediately followed by many more singing its praises.  The more I learned about it, the more I knew this would be perfect.

The Brock is pretty neat.  It was designed for children but it's definitely not a toy.  It's practically indestructible, and if that weren't enough, it has a lifetime warranty that includes accidental damage! Rather than using awkward mirrors, or bulbs that may eventually be difficult to replace, its lighting source is fiberoptic.  It has two eyepieces, 5x and 10x, and three objective lenses, 4x, 10x, and 40x.  When you are selecting a microscope, it is really nice to have a selection of lenses.  Greater magnification is definitely not always better- it depends on what you are looking at. The aperture (or lens opening) is very small indeed for the 40x, which means that you can only see a very small area with it. It also has a much narrower depth of field (the area from near to far that is in focus at the same time), so you need a specimen  that is very flat. We have used it pretty much only with some of the smaller specimens in a set of 100 prepared slides.  Sometimes the stand gets in the way.  In that case, you can just take the microscope off the stand.  They make an adaptor that helps to steady and focus it if you are using it without the stand.  And they claim theirs is the only microscope made in the USA.  So it's your best chance to buy local!

We also invested in a Moticam eyepiece camera.  We got a 1.3 megapixel, and although its their lowest resolution, the images are nice.  Microscope Depot occasionally offers used ones at a discount.  We are still in the midst of our learning curve with the eyepiece camera.  It came with a brochure that explains how to assemble it and install the software, but there is no user's manuel to explain how to actually use the software.  Setting it up and using it the first few times have been quite tedious, because the software seems to offer an endless variety of ways to adjust the image, many of which are kind of bizarre.  I assume some of these adjustments have some sort of mysterious scientific purpose, but who knows? Maybe some of the settings are for designing trippy album covers.  The camera is very much not child friendly, so we would not consider letting Jasper use it by himself yet.  But it's opened up yet another dimension of the microscopic world. It is capable of recording both still images and video.  Our experiments have resulted in some pretty cool images.  Hopefully as we get more familiar with the software, our results will continue to improve.  Here are some of our first pictures, and two short videos. They are both of creatures we found in pond water, a mayfly larvae, and a tiny aquatic snail, smaller than the head of a pin.

A jay feather.

Prepared slide- a butterfly proboscis.

A moldy onion.

Snake Skin.

Prepared slide- "DNA RNA".

Sugar cubes.

Fern spores.

A moldy grape.

Kosher salt.