# Microscoping Living Organisms in the Local Pond **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 24, 2018, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microscoping-living-organisms-in-the-local-pond/826648 "2018-12-24T20:31:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![molten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ec9cab/32.png) [@molten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/molten)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2018, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microscoping-living-organisms-in-the-local-pond/826648/1 "2018-12-24T20:31:42Z")
I want to get a basic setup to be able to watch organisms (likely larger than a cell) from my local pond. I want to watch the stuff on any kind of screen, not directly with the eye piece. I looked at a few microscopes out there and I got the impression you cannot do this on a budget. What is a cheap setup I might get for say under $200-$400? there are mics advertised to be able to do this, but I cannot find any images at that scale, in reality the quality is poor. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2018, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microscoping-living-organisms-in-the-local-pond/826648/2 "2018-12-24T20:56:42Z")
How about [this](https://www.ebay.com/itm/AmScope-40X-1000X-Biology-Science-Student-Compound-Microscope-w-USB-Camera/400602825346?epid=11003306987&hash=item5d45ca0282:rk:5:pf:0)? ---
**Author:** ![molten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ec9cab/32.png) [@molten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/molten)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microscoping-living-organisms-in-the-local-pond/826648/3 "2019-04-17T00:25:33Z")
UPDATE: I got [this](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015MS8O48/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)pocket microscope. Went to my local pond today… got some samples… though it is relatively clean on the top (am I supposed to scoop from the bottom where the slime is?) Nothing under the mic… water with small plant matter. It is the mic or the pond? ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microscoping-living-organisms-in-the-local-pond/826648/4 "2019-04-17T04:12:06Z")
For what you are trying to do 250x strikes me as a little weak. I would think I would want something more in the lines of 400-500x. Try doing some known items such as hairs and the like and see how the results look to you and then decide if you need more objective power or better eyepiece magnification. Or a different pond. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microscoping-living-organisms-in-the-local-pond/826648/5 "2019-04-17T04:24:47Z")
You also might want to increase the viscosity of the water to slow the protozoa down because they can really zip around. I took a Protozoology class with a lab back in college and we used something called [Protoslo](https://www.carolina.com/protist-viewing-supplies/protoslo-quieting-solution-laboratory-grade-15-ml/885141.pr). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microscoping-living-organisms-in-the-local-pond/826648/6 "2019-04-17T11:58:42Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > How about [this](https://www.ebay.com/itm/AmScope-40X-1000X-Biology-Science-Student-Compound-Microscope-w-USB-Camera/400602825346?epid=11003306987&hash=item5d45ca0282:rk:5:pf:0)? That’s probably the way to do it these days. hen I was a kid, I had a projection microscope. (I still have it, for that matter). It was a much less expesive model like these: [https://www.labtiger.com/microscopes/projection-microscopes.html](https://www.labtiger.com/microscopes/projection-microscopes.html) You could remove the frosted-plastic viewing screen and project it right onto the wall, too. The problem was that it was kind of dim. To get a good bright image you needed a lot of light, and that could cook your microscopic creatures. That’s why I say that the modern take, with its minicamera going to a monitor is better – you don’t need such high light levels. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microscoping-living-organisms-in-the-local-pond/826648/7 "2019-04-17T12:31:45Z")
> [@molten](#): > > UPDATE: I got [this](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015MS8O48/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)pocket microscope. > > Went to my local pond today… got some samples… though it is relatively clean on the top (am I supposed to scoop from the bottom where the slime is?) > > Nothing under the mic… water with small plant matter. > > It is the mic or the pond? It’s probably the water. To get a good micro zoo started, fill a jar halfway with pond water (get some muck off the bottom of the pond in there, too, that’s where a lot of stuff lives), add a bunch of grass and weeds or a piece of bread, and let the whole brew get ripe for a few days. It will develop a whole community of strange little creatures for you to look at. At least that’s how _I_ did it when I was a curious kid with a microscope. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microscoping-living-organisms-in-the-local-pond/826648/8 "2019-04-17T21:25:44Z")
I agree with **DLuxN8R-13** - it’s the water. If you only scoop from the top you’re not going to find much that’s larger than a bacterial or algal cell, and you’re not staining your sample so you probably won’t be able to see those. If you want protists and rotifers and such, try scooping some of the bottom muck and use an eyedropper to get (mostly) water and (a little bit) of muck ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microscoping-living-organisms-in-the-local-pond/826648/9 "2019-04-17T22:29:08Z")
Also try scraping the underside of plants growing in the water. If you want to catch anything living in the free water masses you need something like a plankton net to concentrate the little buggers in a smaller volume, otherwise you will be searching a large volume of water for very tiny creatures.