LEARNING CENTER

Learn by playing
with the optics

Interactive simulators built by the BioImaging Centre. Change one thing at a time, see what it does to your image, and arrive at the microscope already knowing why your sample preparation matters.

Sample preparation 5 min

Coverslip Focus Lab

Your objective was computed for one particular thickness of glass. Use the wrong coverslip and you do not lose resolution so much as brightness - the light spreads into a halo instead of landing in the focal spot. This lab lets you swap coverslips and culture vessels under a 20× / 0.8 NA dry lens and watch what happens to the rays and to the cell.

Open simulator
Jump to: Correct: #1.5H Too thin: #1 Through a plastic dish

What you'll take away

  • That #1.5 and #1.5H are both nominally 170 µm - but #1.5 ships anywhere between 160 and 190 µm, which is the whole argument for buying #1.5H
  • What a #1 coverslip costs you: about a quarter of your signal, before you have touched a setting
  • That a plastic culture dish still gives you an image, at roughly a fifth of the brightness
  • That the wrong thickness spreads light into a halo and dims the peak, rather than making the focal spot wider

More simulators on the way

Is there something you find yourself explaining at the microscope over and over? Tell us and we may turn it into the next one - send us a suggestion.