How to make a microscope from a webcam with your own hands?

Remember the school lessons of biology, on which we examined the tinted Iodine cells of the onion in a microscope? How mysterious it seemed then to penetrate this mysterious invisible world!

It turns out that each of us can make a real microscope from a web camera with our own hands. To do this, do not need special knowledge, just a few items that will be found in any home. At the same time, we will not spoil the webcam, it will be able to work just as it did before. So, we need:

• USB web camera;
• Scotch tape;
• scissors;
• stand (rod, reinforced on the base vertically), capable of working as a tripod;
• a subject table on which we will lay out the objects of our future research;
• Backlight - any light source of sufficient brightness, you can use even a flashlight mobile phone.

So, let's begin! The first step is to transform the camera into a microscope. To do this, just unscrew its lens and insert it back, but the other side. It turns out a tremendous increase effect. Well, if the camera for the microscope is at least megapixel. You can take less, but the coefficient of increase, respectively, will also be smaller.

The next step is a tripod. The more stable it is, the easier it will be to configure the microscope from the webcam. It is better to choose for him a rigid rod, which must be strengthened on the edge of the base of sufficient size, with a side of about centimeters 20.

On a tripod, at an altitude of about 10 cm, make a small table the size of a pack of cigarettes. In its center, you need to make a hole for lighting from the bottom. For the table, thick cardboard is suitable, which is easy to fix on a tripod with the help of a L-shaped corner and an adhesive tape. The corner can be taken ready or cut from a thin tin, for example a tin can.

It remains to fix on the tripod, in fact, the microscope itself from the web camera. Please note that the lens should be free to approach the object by only a few mm, so if the shape of the front part of the housing does not allow this, then it needs to be removed. The web-camera-microscope is fastened by analogy with the stage, but not to the tripod itself, but to a ballpoint pen or something like that. And after that, the pen is fixed on the tripod so that it is possible to move it up or down a couple of centimeters to adjust the focus. You can fix it with a thin copper wire.

Our microscope from the webcam is almost ready. Now it is necessary to highlight the stage underneath. If you did not find anything suitable, use a small mirror. Arrange it under the table at an angle so that it throws the bunny from the light source onto the stage. The light source can be a table lamp or a flashlight.

Now you need to focus the camera. Connect it. On the stage, put a sheet of paper with printed text and, by moving the webcam on our improvised skids, adjust the sharpness. Now you know the approximate focal length of the lens. Here is a new application received by our webcam. The microscope is ready for use.

Of course, the design is not perfect, and it is done in a hurry. If you get carried away, you'll probably come up with a much more perfect version of this. Successful experiments!