This is a tiny microscope that recycles the lenses of a Philips SPC900 webcam, that I modified and used for an astronomy project, that you can see here:

[http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1005620](http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1005620)

The height of this little instrument is about 40 millimeters, and it can see stuff at cellular level!

You may want to use the small dish with a slot for a CR 2025 (3V) battery with a microLED, to enlighten your sample. But it's ok using the light of a computer monitor or the light of the sun, to better examine your stuff.

Read more in the instruction section.

Instructions

For this project, you need the lenses of the webcam Philips SPC900 or similar.

You need support material for the base.stl part.

You also need a piece of clear plastic (you will certainly have some plastic blister or similar somewhere...) that you cut in a circle, and insert in the ring, that becomes a little clear dish. If you want, cut other plastic circles to put over your sample, like the clear plastic circles are bread buns and the sample a piece of meat. If you "sandwich" samples this way, it's easier to observe them and make photos with your phone through the lenses.

These lenses were discarded parts of a previous project of mine that you can see here:

[http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1005620](http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1005620)

With just an old webcam you can observe both the giants of the sky and the little cells here on Earth... :)

Category: Biology