11 replies to this topic

[GOLGO13]

Got a new sweet American Optical Trinocular with Phase Contrast. Getting a bit more serious about the Microscope hobby. It's fun and good when the weather stinks.

 

Below are cheek cells in brightfield  (less visible) and Phase Contrast (more visible)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by GOLGO13, 25 March 2023 - 06:27 PM.

[RichA]

Nice!  I didn't even know the AO ever had phase.

[GOLGO13]

Nice! I didn't even know the AO ever had phase.

It's called Phasestar on the scope. Pretty nice unit from what I can tell.

[mikerepp]

Nice!  I didn't even know the AO ever had phase.

American Optical was typically ahead of other manufacturers in microscopy.   But all manufacturers of quality microscopes made phase contrast, darkfield, Rheinberg color and pseudo phase contrast.

You have a very nice Series 10 Microscope.  Excellent quality, still found in laboratories. 

Glad your already having fun with it!

[vertex2100]

Wonderful.  I have a phase one too. I like the solidity of the fixed stage and smoothly operating controls. You can change the objective turrets very quickly by loosening only the one front screw. I put oil 50x and 100x on one turret and bright field on the other extra ones. Being infinity,  you can stack up extra accessories. This one has the Bertrand lens like yours, an analyser/polarizing and a filter turret that I keep a green filter for phase contrast plus extras.  

 

[vertex2100]

Your stage and the rest of the scope looks like it was never used.  The epoxy paint polishes up nicely. The small chromed thumb screws get rusted easily so I polish all of them to remove this rust and make them shiny again.  The objectives are very parfocal,  so you can adjust the focus stop to just put the turret down all the way to it with the coarse focus and then be in focus quickly with small adjustments of the fine one. 

[fishhuntmike]

Nice toys! Thanks for sharing. I need to pull out my two microscopes and start playing again.

[RichA]

Did AO every make fluo or apo objectives?  

[mikerepp]

Yes

[MichaelBrock]

I have the phase contrast setup for my AO 20, but I don't keep it set up for it.   I just discovered this sub-forum for some reason!   AO microscopes are a passion of mine as well. I have refurbished a dozen or so to stock my wife's classroom.

 

What I have struggled with is adapting a camera to it.  The only seller of the adapter extension that I have found is on ebay and he blocked me after I asked a question regarding the length of the adapter (and this was at least 8 years ago).   I cobbled one together with pvc but it's ugly and only marginally functional..

 

Sorry to hijack, I got excited to see AO posts here.

 

 

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[Biosuth]

I also had several AO microscopes  in my science labs. They were put to a lot of use, dependable

and pretty easy to maintain.

Thanks for your info...enjjoy

[azure1961p]

Phase Contrast... the thing of fantasies . DIC.... oh my!!!