Some fun with air resistance involving two fans and a paper airplane (look closely - the fans are not on the same power setting!)

How about some ’splodey fun with hydrogen filled bubbles?

And our own little film having some fun with Polarizing Film.

These objectives will fit any microscope that uses DIN objectives. Just unthread the original eyepiece and put the new one in its place. With just a few moments work your microscope can have the same magnification levels that a more expensive model would have, at a much lower cost! The most common unit will be the 100X DIN objective as most three-objective microscopes do not come with them. As with all 100X objectives the usual rules of using immersion oil to keep the image at its best applies. Both the 40X and 100X designs are spring loaded to prevent any possible damage it the objective comes in contact with the slide.

But let us say you don’t just want to have replacement lenses, you want to bring up you microscope a notch. Enter the Plano-Achromatic objective lenses!

Plano Achromats (or Plan) are a step above standard Achromatic objectives. They provide much greater image clarity almost to the edge of the image. Wheras a typical Achromatic objective will provide low distortion for about 65% of the viewable image, a Plano Achromat will provide flat, undistorted images through 80-95% of the microscope’s image. Plano-Achromats are often found standard in higher end microscopes as they require them to meet the higher demands of such instruments.

Wether you just need a replacement objective, or want to improve your microscope, these objectives are a great option for you!

Well Mr. Connolly has done it again with a sequel called the Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science

Much larger than its prequel (weighing in at 306 pages) the BoPCS covers its topics much more thoroughly and adds 50 new, exciting experiment into the mix. This time around the book works by covering the history of science from basic concepts like fire, the wheel, electricity, all the way to ’smashing atoms’ experiments.

And like its predecessor, it has a video showing some of the experiments:

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First up is the flagship Orbi-Shaker

This is largest of the new Orbital Shakers - able to hold 2x 2 liter flasks or 6kgs of product. It comes with a non-slip rubber mat but will also work with the MAGic Clamp Universal Platform. It shakes with a 19mm orbit size from 30-300rpm which you can control down to a single rpm.

Next up is the Orbi-Shaker’s little brother the Orbi-Shaker Jr.

With a space saving size and a drastically lower price (only $845!) the Junior is still a great model - still being able to hold 4 1 Liter flasks or 4kgs of material. Like its big brother it can spin from 30-300 rpm on a 19mm (3/4″) orbit. The only difference is you have control increments of 10rpms. Like its big brother, the Junior can also operate with the MAGic Clamp.

For those with more specific needs for work with microplates or PCR plates, the high-speed Orbi-Shaker MP comes to the forefront.

The Orbi-Shaker MP spins with a 3mm orbit size but does so from 200rpm to a stunning 1500 rpm. Digital controls allow you to control the speed in 10rpm increments. The MP can hold up to 4 microplates (standard or deepwell) and are secured without clamps or tools. These features allow for thorough needed mixing you need for microplates.

Finally, the last but not least of the line is the low-speed Orbi-Blotter

The orbi-blotter is designed for low-speed operations such as blotting, washing, staining and destaining. The orbit is an impressive 19mm but operates at a gentle 3 to 70 rpm via an analog control. The Orbi-Blotter can hold 3, 2 Liter flasks and no clamping is needed at low speeds (higher speeds will require clamps and reduce capacity). An optional stacking platform can be added for projects that require more surface area

All of the Orbi-Shaker line can operate in temperatures from 4 to 65 degrees Celsius, making them safe for cold-room or incubator operations.

All Orbi-Shakers operate on 12)V, 60 HZ. 230V versions are available by request.

So why bring it up again? Well the Strange Attractor Thinking Putty has been improved! Did Aaron change the formula? No. Did Aaron change the color? No, not yet.

In fact the putty is exactly the same, but now every Strange Attractor Thinking Putty comes with a 1/2″ Cube High-Power Neodymium magnet! Just like the one you see int he picture! No longer do you need to buy them separately, just buy a tin and you are all set!

Don’t forget about Crazy Aaron’s other thinking putties as well!

These go on top of most lab bottles (adapters are included for 28mm, 30mm 32mm, 36mm, 40mm and 45mm threaded tops) and will dispense exactly the amount you want in 0.05ml to 1.0ml increments, depending on the disperser size and type.

The dispensers come in five sizes to cover small to large dispensing needs: 0.25-2.5ml, 0.5-5ml, 1-10ml, 2.5-30ml, and 5-60ml.

All of these shown are from the classic line of bottletop dispensers, but also available are the Research Grade bottletop dispensers which have all their wetted parts made of PTFE and borosilicate glass so they can handle more caustic substances and have a longer life when exposed to various chemicals. The research grade dispensers come in the same sizes as the classic dispensers.

These bottletop dispensers are a great new addition to Spectrum’s always growing line of lab equipment and labware!

This is an excellent teaching kit that sells for under $20! You put the hovercraft together with its base board and arch system. The arch holds a duct system that lets air moved by the propeller not only move the hovercraft, but also elevates it as well! The whole system runs on just 4 ‘AAA’ batteries.

Like you might expect, the hovercraft does well on tile, hardwood floors and similar surfaces. It may not travel as well on carpeting or grass. It needs a solid surface for the air to ‘push’ against.

The hovercraft is a great educational gift and can be built by kids 8+. It is good for classroom projects or as a science fair display.

But there are other factors to consider, such as Field of View. Field of View is how much of the sky you actually see in your eyepiece when you view it. A lot of this depends on the design of the eyepiece and their rated Apparent Field of View.

Apparent Field of View will vary from eyepiece designs. The economic Explorer Eyepieces have a 50 degree field of view, wheras the Expanse Eyepieces - designed for wide field viewing - have a much larger 66 Apparent Field of View).

So how do you figure how much field of view you will actually see, or what is called the True Field of View. Again there is a mathematical formula:

True Field of View = Apparent Field Of View/Magnification

So say we have a short tube telescope with a 400mm focal length and a 20mm eyepiece with an Apparent F.O.V. of 50 degrees. The magnification is 20x, so the true field of view is:

50/20 = 2.5 arc degrees.

To put this is perspective, the Moon takes up almost exactly 1 degree of the sky!

Let’s put this same eyepiece into a much longer tube telescope with a focal length of 1,200mm. With the 20mm eyepiece give a magnification of 60x. So now our eyepiece gives the following true field of view:

50/60 = .833 arc degrees.

But say we use a 9 mm eyepiece from the Expanse line. It has higher magnification but with a 66 apparent field of view to make up for it. With our 1,200mm telescope the magnification is 133.3x, so at this medium-high level of magnification the Expanse gives us:

66/133 = .496, or very close to 1/2 a degree field of view!

Field of view is critical for large objects since you ideally want objects to fit entire in the frame of the eyepiece you are using. Many deep sky objects are actually quite large, but are faint. The Andromeda galaxy, for example, is several times larger than the Moon, (but only its bright central region will be visible to your eye) so you will want a wide field to get it all in the eyepiece.

SOALRBEAT

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“HOW MUCH DOES THIS TELESCOPE MAGNIFY?”

Now this question is more relevant but by no means the most important thing one should ask about one’s telescope.

First of all the answer is “magnification depends on the eyepieces you use”. A telescope’s magnification is determined by dividing it’s mirror or lens’ focal length by the focal length of the eyepiece. So if you have a 25mm eyepiece and a 800mm telescope you will get (800/25 = 32) 32x Power. Most telescopes come with a 25mm and 10mm (but not all) so you can do the math easily enough with each telescope.

That having been said, some folks want to know how much you can crank up the magnification with other eyepieces, barlows and such. A rule of thumb there is to not increase magnification beyond 2x per mm, or 50x per inch of the telescope’s aperture. So a 70mm telescope shouldn’t go above 140x. This is because the image will break down and you will not get any benefit to the increased magnification. Even the largest telescope should not go above 300x.

In truth, in most cases magnification should only be ‘cranked up’ on small, bright objects such as planets or the Moon. Otherwise you can usually stick to low and medium magnifications.

But most of all you should remember critical rule with telescopes: The aperture of the lens of the mirror is more important than the magnification! This is why amateur astronomers are always telling folks to stay away from telescopes that advertise excess magnifications (such as “600X!”). Magnification should be a distant second consideration. It is always more important to gather light before increasing the size of the image.