I've been having the most fun time! In addition to obsessing about playing guitar, I found a
website that shows how to take apart a laser pointer to make a really spiffy micro lens for a smartphone.
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| That clear spot in the wood is the lens from the laser pointer |
I drilled a hole in some wood and pushed the lens into it, then put it up to my iphone camera. I do have a pretty good microscope at home, but this one is portable in the extreme and cheaper than I could ever dream. I'm hoping it might be useful for TM's school, since I don't know what kind of access they have to microscopes. It should work with iPads, that the school already has...
Here are some pictures!
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| Jersey-knit pants |
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| This moss was really tiny! |
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| A very cute operculum! |
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| When I knocked off the operculum, millions of spores flipped out |
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| Another capsule pic |
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| Baked Bugs (what I found in the light fixture while changing light bulbs) |
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| I really wish I knew more about insects |
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| But I can't even come close on these |
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| This looks like a fly to me, but so many things do. It was tiny tiny tiny! |
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| And these things are flying around my house! Just a few millimeters long. |
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| I might have actually figured this one out, maybe -- a kind of flying aphid, invaded from another continent. Maybe. |
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| This doesn't look like something that could get up that high. Weird. |
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| Looks waspy, no? |
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| Dead insects galore. Almost the size of dust. |
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| Here we go, something more familiar! A hairy leaf vein (species unknown). |
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| I tried to do an epidermal peel but this magnification is really not even close to high enough. |
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| Closeup of a sunflower petal |
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| The bottom of a sunflower petal (it's a flower of course) |
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| An inner flower of that same sunflower |
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| Cheerios! :) |
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| Thread! |
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| pencil |
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| Tablecloth (which reminds me I should have put up pictures of things normal size for comparison) |
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| onion peel |
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| Apple skin (some things work better than others...this is bland) |
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| The cat is bored |
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| Mold on an old apple I found |
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| Bird poop :) |
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| A shell from the beach |
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| More protective leaf spines |
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| leaf hairs |
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| Kleenex |
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| Really bad lighting on my purple sponge... |
