Microscope. 2 steps forward, 1 step.. uh sideways?
Pretty excited to get the next step of my microscope project. Don’t remember if I did a write up for it yet, but basically I want to be able to look at the tips of record needles to see if they are damaged or not. I cheaply acquired a high end microscope but ran into several problems. One issue is part of the mechanical stage was missing ( the part that adjusts the specimen around ). So I built/bought a “third arm” style clamp, affixed that to a board, then mounted the board to the mechanical stage. This gives me the precision necessary to make fine adjustments for seeing the tip of the needle. This worked out better than expected. 
What didn’t work out was my lighting. These are super crappy photos I took by putting my iphone up against the eyepiece. They don’t really show off the main problem though, which is you need LOTS of light to see this stuff. The closer you zoom in the more light you need. 
I have addressed this in the past by using a camera, and leaving the shutter open – but that involves a host of other problems ( focus, camera set up ).
That is the next challenge I’ll work on. I have a way to set up a camera, but the focal distance is different from the eye pieces. This means I have to refocus when I shift to shoot. Which is a PITA since my camera view screen doesn’t focus in real time. I have to shoot/focus/shoot/focus/shoot until I get something right.
I could just cheat and use my higher end camera for this task I guess. I’ll see. Would be nice to fix the problem for real – I think I need to adjust the distance of the camera from the lens for that to work.