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I’m finally learning about these things and just raked our leaves up in preparation. A couple of years ago I was late and the cleanup after the snow melt in spring was messy.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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How old are the kids? Over ten, hand them the shovel and push them out the door. Under ten, hand them the shovel and supervise.
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Slacker007 wrote: I am not excited (Oh, the back! That's gonna hurt)
Why? It will all melt away come July. No need to rush into clearing it.
Common sense is admitting there is cause and effect and that you can exert some control over what you understand.
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I'm looking into buying one of these for entertaining grandchildren (and myself) and getting them hooked, at the same time, on science and learning. And playing with it myself. As they young ones are quite young, taking turns and adjusting the focus for different quality vision make it difficult to maintain their attention span - hence, the TV/Computer view.
They seem to range in price from US$10 and up and up. There's magnification, resolution (for the digital output) to consider - aside from not getting a piece of junk.
A nice addition would be time-lapse video - watch salt crystals growing can be neat and a nice take-home.
Any experience on this out there?
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I can't speak for a microscope but if you want timelapse software I am sure there is lots out there including TeboCam[^] which I wrote and use as a webcam security system - it includes timelapse functionality for usb webcams.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Thanks! Already the post has been worthwhile.
There are some dog-walkers I need to identify . . . . . . . . and thank for their gifts.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Don't forget to invite JSOP over when you thank them for their gifts.
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Very interesting... I am thinking on buying a couple of cams due to someone (I suppose teenagers) in my neighbouhood that is pissing me off with his/her/their actions.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I wrote it for myself, because at the time there was nothing that did exactly what I wanted and it evolved with lots of user feedback.
I am sure there are better webcam security/timelapse systems out there - I use it daily and it gives me some reassurance being able to see what is going on inside my property while I am out(there have been a few burglaries in my area).
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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W∴ Balboos wrote: watch salt crystals growing paint drying can be neat
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I got a telescope recently. I'm going to use it to look at Uranus amongst other things.
Uranus - Wikipedia
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Mark Parity wrote: I'm going to use it to look at Uranus
You wouldn't be the first. Will your telescope give you the feeling you can reach out and touch it?Mark Parity wrote: amongst other things.
I suppose, under those circumstances, you could easily get mooned . . .
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Mine, or someone else's . . . where else could it possibly be?
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Are you my teenage son using a fake account? Actually he matured a little bit and move on from Uranus jokes to "your mama's" and "that's what she said" jokes.
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You shouldn't be looking at anyone's anus without permission. 
"Dreams really do come true."
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Whichever hardware you go for, I can only offer one piece of advice:
Don't use the software that comes with it.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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The USB microscopes you can buy for < $100 are all toys, suitable for a few moments of looking at pennies and your fingerprints, but not good for anything serious. The software that comes with them sucks. The field-of-view is very narrow. The variable magnification (I hesitate to call it zoom) requires you to readjust the height of the camera over the subject to focus.
If you really want to make any use of it, you will have to spend a few hundred bucks for a real microscope with a camera attachment.
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Unfortunately, as I go through the various offerings, I have to agree with you. Even then, it'll take some care.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I bought a "Plugable USB 2.0 Digital Microscope with Flexible Arm Observation Stand for Windows, Mac, Linux (2 MP, 250x Magnification)" off Amazon for $35 (USD). It's cute, works and I think would work well for as a "science toy". Is it a high quality scientific instrument, no, but I suspect it's a lot easier to clean peanut butter and jelly off of and if it get knocked off a table you won't have a heart attack.
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I looked at it right away - even when your post was before the inscrutable judges.
It's got a lot going for it in that fewer users (by comparison) are negative. I was hoping for a little more than it features - viewing the hairs on insect legs, for example, and bacteria, if possible (that seems iffy at the peanut-butter level).
However - it seems more likely to not disappoint if I do decide it has enough.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I'd go with something USB that VirtualDub can capture from. That way, you can make movies, time lapse, etc. However, the optics are everything, and cheaper price means cheaper optics.
My suggestion, is to get a student microscope with several different magnification settings (not via the eyepiece), and a camera mount for an inexpensive USB camera. That way, you can use the microscope without the camera, and upgrade the optics or camera if someone really gets into it.
This is the route I ended up since I inherited a student microscope. I've fashioned an adapter for my DSLR and have a fun picture of some bits of AOL.
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Actually, I've a decent student microscope at home, now. Bought if for $10 at a garage sale - an insane steal. One of those wooden-box type. A couple of eyepiece, several objectives (it's not here so I'm being general about this). Up to 1000x as it stands.
I just began to look into the retro-fit cameras for this. Best of both worlds? Descent optics. I'll have to measure the eyepieces to make sure one of the adapters these cameras comes with will be good for me.patbob wrote: camera mount for an inexpensive USB camera.
Are you saying I could get a camera mount and use an existing camera? If so - can you send me some seed data so I can do some searches.
Meanwhile, thanks.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Wooden box student microscope.. sounds just like mine 
Mine only does 450X, but that's the combo of the 30X and 15X eyepiece. You loose the eyepiece when you mount a camera.
Look for microscope adapters. For example:
Microscope adpater via Amazon[^]
Here's a C-mount adapter:
C-mount microscope adapter[^]
And a machine-vision C-mount camera (yeah, used, and probably NTSC composite video output, but you get the idea):
C-mount camera[^]
Hope that helps.
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These aren't that encouraging - for the price, the money would be better spent on the microscope ready adapters designed for the purpose, including the camera. I have a Pi 3, but the idea of the duck-tape (abstractly) is that I don't want to make a hobby of building the microscope interface.
All of this feedback, however, is good. Eventually, the decision made with 'cut-my-loses' involved will, at least, not include disappointment.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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