Best microscopes & equipment according to redditors

I have a x1600 Microscope at home and your thing about matches it. It would be great for lookin at pollen. You can get a calibration slide to find out what the sizes are: http://www.amazon.com/AmScope-4-Scales-Micrometer-Calibration-Microscopes/dp/B005KVGAAS

Try a microscope calibration slide.. You can probably buy one on ebay as well.

It's pretty easy to find testing kits on Amazon, but from what I've seen those cost $25-$45 each and only tell you in an analog fashion that your sperm count is above or below 20 million.

My recommendation (the rest of this is just a repost of something I posted earlier this week--sorry to anyone that's seen this before):
If you're looking for a long term solution that requires some investment but could really ease your mind...

You could buy

-A Microscope

-Some slides

-And some pipettes

...and then check your sperm count once or twice a year. All that costs about $100, but it should last you decades. I won't have my vasectomy until a couple weeks from now, but I've purchased these items and looked at my sperm under the microscope in order to get a feel for it.

Count the sperm in the 400x field of view. Record the numbers on the analysis sheet, or multiply the number by .5 to see the total. The total number of sperm is counted in millions, so a result of 72 would mean approximately 72,000,000 sperm.

According to the World Health Organisation, a man needs a sperm count of at least 20 million sperm per millilitre of ejaculate to have a chance of conceiving a child without medical intervention.

You can buy a microscope scale; she's right it makes a big difference to the audience to see an actual scale in the micrograph. http://www.amazon.com/AmScope-MR400-Calibration-Precision-Ground-Construction/dp/B005KVGAAS

Clearly I didn't mean count each cell. But thanks for making me spell it out for you.

You need one of these, a microscope (400x power), and a little patience, but you can do it.

Most people don't have sperm in their precum. Those who do have sperm in their precum have it consistently, so it can be checked for.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself.
http://www.amazon.com/Opti-Flex-QC300-12x12-Micron-Controlled/dp/B001KOX14C/ref=sr_1_1?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=1-1

A quick Amazon search found these and I bet you could find some fake blood on there too, else it is very easy to make with red food dye, corn starch, and water

You could consider dissolving 1 g of agar in 50 mL water, boiling it, cooling it to ca. 55C, taking a teaspoon and then before it solidifies mixing in a bit of your (hopefully well-populated) algae sample, apply it to the slide, and lower a cover slip on top. Have a coffee. Then if it's cooled, you can clean up the edges with an exacto knife or similar, and seal the cover slip to the slide using ample nail polish around the edges. If the agar behaves, you'll have mounted some algae in a clear "resin" inside, and the nail polish seals the moisture in. Since the tissue isn't fixed, I'm not sure how it lasts.

With regard to stains, you could consider to mix a tiny bit of either of these in with your algae sample before mixing it with the warm agarose, it will stain different things in your samples depending on which stain. That could be a fun experiment in itself.

Let me know if you make any progress this way!

Like this? Or is the color and opacity important?

The soil is filled with organisms. I usually get them from the compost pile. The trick is isolating, identifying and growing them. My microscope is this one.. Here is the link to see the specs.

I use a digital camera, this one to capture images.

I received a microscope from RAOA that I would love to continue to use! However, I need more slides for samples (on my Scientific list).

I'm not a crafty turtle... I'm a ninja turtle!

This is the slides I have been using. Could these be causing the issue?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002OS6D9I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
About the product
This is a package of pre-cleaned 72 piece microscope blank slides and 100 piece 22mmx22mm square cover slips
Glass Blank Slides: 1" x 3" x 0.04" (25.4x76.2x1mm)
Glass Cover Slips: 7/8 x 7/8 x 0.006" (18x18x0.13mm)
Material: optical glass
Finished with ground edge

Perhaps borosilicate glass slides:

https://www.grainger.com/product/LAB-SAFETY-SUPPLY-75x25mm-Borosilicate-Glass-20F849

https://www.amazon.com/CapitolBrand-Borosilicate-Economy-Microscope-Thickness/dp/B003UEQM7S

Otherwise, could you print or etch the barcodes directly onto aluminum tape?

Hey! Thanks for the reply! So what i'm trying to sense is physical contact with the delay line. do you think this would work as an acceptable piezoplate? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OZXNZDM/ref=crt_ewc_title_gw_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1VSCCV2WT9K4B

We actually have a laser cutter in my department that we use to cut microstrip lines so i for sure will look into that. Also, when you say isolation tracks what is that referring to exactly? im still kind of new to these things. Oh and i understand that ill need an absorber in order to prevent reflections. what is typically used to absorb that? Thanks again!

I use a couple of different ones. For my home-built horizontal microscope, I have an adapter that allows me to attach a microscope objective directly onto the Nikon, something like this. I forget where I got mine, maybe Edmund Optical or ThorLabs.

For attaching to regular microscopes, you just need the appropriate adapter, like this. The one you use will depend on what kind of scope you are using, but if you buy a trinocular scope that is meant to have a camera on it, SOMEBODY will obviously have an adapter.

You can even get phone adapters, though the quality will not be as good.