The Open University McArthur Microscope
This is an amazing little instrument... although small, lightweight and almost entirely plastic, it makes a very serviceable field instrument.
The image is pretty good, too: see below for a comparison with Zeiss Standard set up with Leitz DIC optics.
I have modified mine to use LED illumination following the method described by John Garrett in Micscape Magazine: Using a white LED in the Open University microscope.
This works well and battery life has been no problem.
You can see in the picture above that the microscope has a number of slots available for filters etc. above and below the objectives.
I found that a plastic strip with different size holes could be used to provide effective substage aperture control in place of a substage diaphragm.
A similar transparent strip with different sized black patches can be used to provide darkground and oblique illumination. It should also be possible to use polarised light, although rotating a polariser would be tricky.
OU McArthur Microscope Transmitted Light Image of Diatoms Compare this image with the one below of the same subject taken using a much more complex instrument:
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Diatoms in DIC using a Zeiss Standard Microscope with Leitz DIC Optics Ocular: Zeiss KPL-W 10/18; Objective: Leitz 25/0.55 NPL Fluotar ICT
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