Do you love the idea of DIY microscopy but nervous about biting off more than you can chew? Thorlabs’ Cerna support for DIY microscopy is a great resource for easing you into it–think of it as training wheels for optical set ups.
The Thorlabs Cerna microscope is a modular modular microscopy platform, but it’s surrounded by a plethora of components for building or modifying microscopy systems. It’s a nice blend of DIY and pre-aligned, well-defined optical paths that can be built upon. You can spend money where you feel you need to, and can save and 3D print on other components that you feel more confident about.
Pamphlets about this system advertise “over 100 products in the line” , but that was two years ago. When we counted, we found over 300 products in the line and then we just gave up and stopped counting. This is a really huge resource.
And let’s be honest here, we love Thorlabs, not just because of their Lab Snacks. We love them because more often then not they put prices on things. We don’t have to spend all our time emailing and calling up to find quotes, the price is just there.