Dark field Microscopy

One of the well documented projects that I use very often when examining objects under the microscope are Dark field adapters.Dark field adapters simply stop light from directly interacting with the sample you are examining. The only light that will interfere with the sample is the light coming through the glass at a horizontal. This effect will bring details that would normally not be visible especially with samples that are not transparent.

                            I simply measured the area above the light source under my microscope and designed it to fit. I designed 3 different sizes  mostly to experiment to see what ones are more useful. Turns out it all depends on the size of the sample I have found that the light interferes differently so having multiple sizes worked out in my favor. The adapters were all 3d printed with Black PLA with one exception being the .5 mm blocker, my printer for some reason didnt like printing at the detail I wanted so I had shapeways print it for me and it came out great.

So to finish this off my wife and found a mite in one out terrariums so decided to check it out under the micoscope. Now a mite really isnt transparent so dark field really helped showing us the details needed in identifying the species.