Whiling away a wet February Tuesday

 The rain here is going on and on and another day of damp dawned with the added complication that I needed to stay in for the afternoon to allow some minor work to be done in the house.

My solution was to build a couple of bits of kit for the microscope and light box.

I already had the small amount of wood needed so I popped down to my local hardware shop and spent £2.20 on some bolts brackets and washers.  An earlier visit had doubled that with wing nuts and 4 small magnets..... in case I give the impression of being a cheapskate !

Here's my purchases plus wood and screws from old stuff kept in the garage.

The first item to complete was a new stage for the microscope that could go lower than my earlier attempt.

The idea for using a magnet attached to plastezote rather than wood came from a BENHS meeting in Reading and was suggested by the guy who looks after the collection (who's name I cannot recall, apologies)

Anyway, using the magnet gave me an alternative stage design as below

                                                             Magnetic stages with plastezote glued on. 

Two ways of attaching them were tried for later experimentation. They look rough and ready but seem to work OK.

    

    

 Second image to give scale

The other item I wanted to build was a photographic stage to go inside my lightbox. I used the same basic idea but a much larger stage. This time it was 10cm x 9cm so required slightly larger brackets. Once finished I decided that a paper cover might give better results than the bare white plastizote so pressganged a sheet of blue writing paper into service.

If I like the results I will probably try other colours.

                                                                               

                                                                                     Framework for stage

                                                                                        Finished photographic stage

                                                                       In situ with blue paper cover

My aim here is to produce identification images rather than prizewinning macro shots. I'm afraid that ideas for good images should be searched for among talented photographers. This blog is about the basics and will, I hope, show that Hoverflies need not be too daunting.

Here then is my first attempt at using the set up with a small focus stack of a Common Snout Fly  (Rhingia campestris ). I clearly have some way to go in terms of exposure settings.

Back to You Tube videos etc to keep learning before the weather improves I guess.