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

Remember your high school biology class, where we looked tinted with iodine onion cells in the microscope? How mysterious then seemed the penetration into the mysterious unseen world!

It Turns out that each of us can make a real microscope of the webcam with her hands. It does not need special knowledge, just a few items that will be in any house. With this web camera, we will not spoil, it can work as worked before. So, we will need:

• USB web camera;
• duct tape;
• scissors;
• strut (rod, mounted on the base vertically), capable of operating as a tripod.
• stage, in which we decompose objects of our future research.
• light - any light source of sufficient brightness, you can even use a flashlight for a mobile phone.

Let's start! The first step – turning the camera into a microscope. To do this, simply remove the lens and reinsert, but the other side. A dramatic effect of increasing. Well, if the camera for a microscope at least megapixel. You can take less, but the ratio increases will also be smaller.

The Next step – tripod. Than it is more stable, the easier it will be to adjust the microscope from a webcam. It is better to choose for the hard core that should be strengthened on the base edge of sufficient size, with a side of about 20 centimeters.

On a tripod, at a height of about 10 cm make the stage the size of a pack of cigarettes. In the center you need to make a hole for illumination from below. Table will fit thick cardboard, which on the tripod easily mounted using an l-shaped area and a Scotch. Area you can take ready-made or cut from thin tin, such as tin cans.

We can attach to a tripod, in fact, the microscope of the webcam. Note that the lens should be free to approach the subject only a few mm, so if the shape of the front of the case does not allow that, then it should be removed. Web camera-mounted microscope by analogy with the stage, but not to the tripod and to a ballpoint pen or something similar. And after that the handle is fixed on the tripod so was able to move it up or down a couple of inches to adjust the focus. You can pin a thin copper wire.

Our microscope from a webcam almost ready. Now need to light the stage from below. If you can't find anything suitable, use a small mirror. Arrange it under the table at an angle so that it cast a Bunny from a light source on the object table. The light source can be a table lamp or a flashlight.

Now we need to focus the camera. Connect it. On the stage lay a sheet of paper with printed text and moving the web camera on our makeshift sled, adjust the sharpness setting. Now you know the approximate focal length of the lens. Here is the new application was received by our webcam. The microscope is ready for operation.

Of Course, the design is not ideal, and it is made in haste. If you are addicted, you probably will come up with variant of much more perfect than this. Good luck with experiments!