Oblique illumination - slim stereo bases - how migh it work?

Ichthyophthirius · Post by **Ichthyophthirius** » Mon Dec 02, 2019 2:08 pm

Hi,

Transmitted oblique illumination on a stereo microscope is very useful for observing pond life. Classically, this is achived with an adjustable mirror in the base. Recently, Nikon, Olympus and Leica have all come out with oblique illumination systems that are housed in very low ("slim") bases. The bases are so low that I can't quite believe that there is just a lens and mirror optical arrangement built in.

Nikon has a graphic for its "oblique coherent contrast" with a sliding diaphragm https://www.microscopyu.com/techniques/ ... lumination but that seems to be housed in their older, higher bases.

The new ones are very slim: https://www.microscope.healthcare.nikon ... mz25-smz18

Olympus has a system with exchangable "cartidges" for oblique illumination: https://www.olympus-lifescience.com/en/ ... 15352.html

Has anyone here seen these systems in real life? Any ideas how this could work? Maybe some kind of optical grating? I'd like to reverse engineer something like that for my old stereo microscope if that were feasible.

Regards, Ichty

Scarodactyl · Post by **Scarodactyl** » Mon Dec 02, 2019 4:50 pm

I think part of it is that they look somewhat slimmer than they are because they're also very wide.

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Mon Dec 02, 2019 7:18 pm

~300mm wide!

Scarodactyl · Post by **Scarodactyl** » Mon Dec 02, 2019 7:34 pm

Huh. I thought it was bigger, but I guess it's more the general scale of these stereos:

grgh · Post by **grgh** » Wed Dec 04, 2019 4:28 pm

Now where can I find some space?