March 2025
For the Zoom gossip meeting “Your go-to equipment”, I showed the LED ring-light that I use with my stereomicroscope and with macro lenses, and explained how I produce shadowless and dark-ground illumination.
Later in the month I went to the Quekett Spring Sale near Reading. It is a long trip by public transport, about 3½ hours, but I managed to sell a few items. I only bought one item, a Carl Zeiss C5× eyepiece, that I intend to try out with a T-mount microscope adapter.
February 2025
Joan Bingley and I took stereomicroscopes and specimens to the “Life Under a Microscope” session of the Wimbledon Common Nature Club. It is run by Auriel Glanville and her assistants (Jen Long, Luci Teuma and Alexander and Oliver Mallett) and welcomes children from 6–14 years old to come and discover the world of nature on the Common. They meet for 2 hours each month in the Information Centre, the same venue as used by Quekett members on excursions, the Weekend of Nature and the Open Day. I took my Olympus SZ4045 stereomicroscope with an LED ring-light, and a small and simple stereomicroscope.
Families with my stereomicroscopes
Joan brought a small Brunel stereomicroscope with transmitted and reflected light, and an old Orion S420 with a torch as a light source.
Joan Bingley’s stereomicroscopes
The specimens that the children brought back from their walk were mostly lichens, but they also brought back holly leaves and bramble stems. I photographed these later to include in the meeting report.
Holly leaf spines
Bramble thorns
Later in the month, I went to the workshop on stains and staining in the Natural History Museum (led by Gordon Brown) and the Home Counties Meeting in Cobham (organised by Joan Bingley). My participation was limited to taking photographs and notes for meeting reports on the Quekett website.
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