Better Microscopy -- Vols. 1 & 2 Special Combined Edition by David J. Jackson, available at: http://www.lulu.com/browse/book_view.php?fCID=127240, current price $18.95 USD.
Inside, the book is subtitled Guide to the "Secrets" of Transmitted-Light Microscopy & Optical Contrast Techniques.
What it's really about is condensers, objectives, and eyepieces, particularly focusing on how these parts work together, how to adjust whatever you have for best performance, and what to buy (or make) if you want something different. This book is not for the rank beginner, but if you've ever wondered what "Kohler illumination" really means, and whether it really matters, the book is fantastic. Extensive discussion of darkfield, oblique, Rheinberg, and other illumination methods, practical advice on how to verify your illumination setup, what you really need to get full mileage out of that 100X oil objective, how to mix-and-match objectives and eyepieces, etc. etc.
The text is informal, easy to read, and very practical. Quoting from the introduction:
The book is a bit heavy on casual typos (the quote above is accurate to the letter), but this has no impact on the technical content.David J. Jackson wrote:To this end, the "customary" fancy diagrams ("learning aids"?) have also been purposefully omitted -- after all, if they didn't work before, in terms of improving the reader's understanding, then why rely them again? So, don't look for them here -- there are simply gone!
Here, you use your own scope, instead of a diagram, and learn by actually using it. In this way, you will be allowed to discover for yourself just what is and isn't true (or relevant) and, in so doing should gain a much better understanding of your equipment and of the practical side of the world of microscopy.
I am most grateful to Ian MacGregor ("tobormac" on the Yahoo Microscope group) for recommending this book to me.
In reply to him,
So I am hereby passing it along.Rik Littlefield wrote:I received the book yesterday. I have read it cover-to-cover once already. I agree with your evaluation. This book pulls together a lot of information that I had to pick up as bits and pieces, adds a lot more information that I had not gotten to yet, and tops it off with a bunch of wisdom that I probably would not have lived long enough to pick up any other way.
Thanks for the recommendation!
Happy reading!
--Rik
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