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Saturdays
10.30am - 3pm and Thursday Evenings,
7.00-9.15 pm,
University of Manchester, Stopford
Building/Medical School
M13 9PT (corner of Oxford Road and Aker
Street next to the Holy Name Church).
Meetings take place in the new facility of
the Anatomy & Histology unit providing
access to microscopes, slides, books,
computers and projection.
(MAPS: How to
find us at Streetmaps)
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- See Previous
Meetings (back to 1998) and to
view our successful All Day Summer
Meetings 2023 &
2019 and
Anglesey Exhibition and Zoom meetings.
- October 26th 2024
(Saturday 10.30-3.00)
Manchester University Med
Sch Oxford Rd
- Exhibits & Demos, Slide
& Book Library, Sales
- Tour of
Bioimaging/EM Facility (Dr Peter
March)
- Microscopy of Blood
(Mike Mahon)
- Report:
- Around 13 members of the
Manchester and Oldham Microscopical
Societies enjoyed a marvellous talk and
tour of the University Core
Microscopy facilities, viewing state of
the art automated Electron microscopes
which trim and image specimen blocks;
spinning disc multiphoton Confocal
microscopes; super-resolution and live
cell imaging producing multi-terabyte
images; automated slide scanners ..
& more.
Thanks especially to Dr Peter March for
his informative & enthusiastic
presentation.
 Links: Bioimaging
EM
- Mike Mahon presented a
talk on Blood Histology and members
undertook a brief practical identifying
blood cells in smear slides - however
current Health & Safety issues
prevented any stabbing!
(Click on image below for pdf of
talk)
- Chris Power brought
along a Zeiss microscope and camera to
assist in our practical and gave an
overview of some AI assisted imaging.
- Graham Marsh allowed us
to use a state of the art c1900 Watson
Van Heurck brass and black research
microscope and also showed a rare book
on Van Heurck
 
- The library was made
available and some good discussions were
had about collaboration and microscopy
and natural history outreach to younger
people.
- Thanks also to our hosts
- Manchester University Anatomy
department for use of the rooms with
upgraded AV facilities and organising
parking.
- It was also great to
have so many members of the Oldham
Society here who were presented with our
status bag of Dog's Bay Sand containing
numerous foramenifera.
- Overall, a very good
start to our new format Saturday
meetings!
- November 23rd
2024 (Saturday 10.30-3.00)
Manchester
University Med Sch Oxford Rd
- Exhibits & Demos, Slide
& Book Library, Sales
- Gibson Slide
Collection: Health Museum (Dr Dave
Sigee)
- Phase-Contrast
Microscopy (Mike Mahon)
- bring along suitable
specimens to view
- Report:
- Great turnout, 14
enthusiasts from MMS, OMS and others
enjoyed a very hands on meeting with
well illustrated and informative
talks and demos.
- Phase Contrast
Microscopy by Mike Mahon included
need for, history, theory, equipment
and modern developments. (Click
image below for pdf)
Phase contrast microscopes by Baker
(Graham Marsh), Lomo (Phil Slatter)
and Olympus (Mike Mahon) were in use
for viewing slides of members cheek
cells, diatoms, pollen, muscle.
Chris Power showed a famous early
Zeiss video of cell division under
Phase Contrast.
Video
- Gibson Slide
collection by Dr David Sigee covered
aspects of Victorian Microscopy,
background to the collection and
many examples photographed using
different techniques. Several
samples from the collection were
made available to view.
- Two visitors from
Crewe brought along an excellent set
of Pollen slides enthused by their
recent attendance by a course on
pollen mounts by John Charlton (See
our forthcoming March Meeting).
- John Charlton
brought a rare medical instrument
for optically assessing blood sugar
concentration.
- Dave Furness showed
images of an ultramicrotome (Du Pont
Sorvall MT5000) available to
interested parties.
- Steve Dawson showed
off several home made wooden slides
of feathers and other material
suitable for the stereo-microscope
(See our forthcoming February
meeting and have ago at hands on
slide making.)
- Stamps featuring
microscopes and microscopists were
shown including the UK 1989 RMS set
and images of Zernike (inventor of
phase contrast) on a Dutch stamp.
 
- February 22nd (Saturday
10.30-3.00)
Manchester University Med
Sch Oxford Rd
- Exhibits & Demos, Slide
& Book Library, Sales
- Measurement in
Microscopy (Mike Mahon)
- bring along your own
specimens to measure
- Making Slides
for Low Power Microscopy (Steve
Dawson)
-
bring along specimens to mount
- Meeting
Report ....
- Just under ten members and
colleagues enjoyed a hands on meeting
involving viewing images, measuring
and slide making plus lots of
interesting microscopic gossip.
- We were updated on some excellent
online resources from Myscope,
Graticules Optics, Quekett and RMS
(see MMS Web
Links) and the newly proposed
super-Electron microscope to be built
at Daresbury. The passing of Dr Ron
Butler, former Director of Electron
Microscopy at Manchester university
was noted.
- Dave Furness showed some excellent
mounted prints of Scanning and
Transmission Electron Microscopy
specimens from swan feathers, seaweed,
cilia and flies.
He also provided us with SEM images of
Dog's bay Sand Foraminifera he
acquired at the previous meeting but
this time coated in gold and greatly
magnified.
 
- Mike Mahon gave a talk on
measurement in microscopy
concentrating on Morphometry and
magnification calibration using graph
paper slides, stage micrometers and
eyepiece graticules but also demoed a
filar micrometer, image shearing
eyepiece, opisometer and planimeter.
Brief coverage was also give to
Stereology, Pattern Analysis and Image
analysis. Phil Slatter also brought
along some filar eyepieces and Stewart
Thompson showed a vintage graticule in
a splendid carved case.
 
- See also the superb first published
article of the Quekett (1868) by MC
Cooke on 'Universal Microscopic
Admeasurement' where he promotes
the adoption of the 'millemetre' over
the inch for micrscopists, but
politically incorrectly insults most
non-UK countries regarding microscopy!
An excellent read.
Admeasurement
(see pages 13-19)
- Steve Dawson got us all worrying
about our shaky hands when trying to
prepare specimen mounts for low power
microscopy. With the help of Phil
Slatter's woodwork skills and Steve's
precision mounting and glueing we all
came away with acceptable mounts of
seaweed or mosquitos in posh mahogany
slides. Chris Power provided the
mosquitos and an excellent Zeiss
stereomicroscope with reflected,
transmitted, oblique and darkfield
lighting to view them with. Phil also
set up the MMS inspection microscope
for viewing on the Anatomy lab's
massive monitors.
   
 
Overall, a fun hands on meeting!
- Email contacts from Michael
Gilligan suggested ideas for
microscopical measurements at home
could include thickness of
coverglasses, pit size on CDs or pixel
spacings on mobile phones. Bente
Loudon also noted a forthcoming
auction of Cameras and Scientific
instruments at Flints.
- March 20th (Thursday
7pm-9.15pm) Manchester University
Med Sch Oxford
Rd
- AGM 145 -
discussed this and next season events
- Exhibits & Demos, Slide
& Book Library, Sales
- Pollen Slide Making
Demonstration (John Charlton)
    
- Pollen 3D Image Library
& Links (MM & CP)
NIH3D
RMS
In Focus
Quekett
pollen
- Zeiss Lightfield4D
microlens array plenoptic imaging (Chris Power)
- Smartphone Macro/Micro
adapter (MM)
   
- April 12th 2025
(Saturday 10.30-3.30) - Liverpool
World Museum
- MMS Outreach Demo for
World Microscope Day (April 13th)
400years since the
term 'Microscope' was first
used ! (1625)
- Very successful outreach meeting with
well over 600 visitors to our stands at
Liverpool! Members (Graham, Tom, Mike,
Stewart and Phil) showed off a range of
Victorian Brass Microscopes, Stereo,
Polarising and Darkfield microscopes,
Yeast Cells, Hair, Wasps, live Brine
Shrimps & Daphnia & pondwater.
- Members and colleagues (including John,
Michael, Dave, Ronald and Jasmine) also
took part in events at Penkridge, Oldham,
and online Zoom meetings over the weekend.
- May 17th (Saturday)
2025 (10am
- 4pm)
- All-Day
Outreach Event - Etherow Country
Park Sailing Club
- Collect
& Display
- Members,
Guests, Visitors are welcome to
bring along microscopes or samples
or go collecting around the country
park, nature reserve & lake -
viewing at the Club House,
refreshments available.
- Location SK6
5HN (Between Marple Bridge
& Romiley)
- Organiser:
Phil Slatter
- July 2nd
2025 (Wednesday 11am) Manchester Central (Formerly GMex)
- MMC
2025 : RMS Microscience
Microscopy Congress
- MMS members and
Guests meet-up to chat and tour the
exhibition
- 146th
Season (Provisional Programme)
- October 18th 2025,
Saturday
- November 15th
2025, Saturday
- February 14th
2026, Saturday
- March/April ??
2026, Saturday
- May ?? 2026,
Saturday
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