After I asked the list a while back for advice about dissecting microscopes, I ventured onto eBay and made an astounding catch: an Accu-Scope 3076 trinocular microscope with zoom, detachable 2x objective lens, and 10x and 20x eyepieces, with a boom stand, a Micrometrics 318 digital camera, and a Dolan-Jenner Fiber-Lite M1-150 fiber-optic illuminator (with both a ring light and dual gooseneck cables), all for $400, which was ridiculously low. The seller did not know what they had (they had bought it from an industrial lab that closed), and so I want particularly to thank Kathleen Sayce for looking at the listing for me and telling me which questions I needed to ask, and why. She's a born teacher - she picked up perfectly on how little I knew about where to even start, and took it from there. Thanks, Kathleen! Over the course of two days I have set it all up, downloaded manuals for everything and software for the camera (thank goodness for the Internet), and started to play. I haven't yet had a chance to botanize (20" of snow on the ground), but I have found the most amazing peripheral benefit in just having the microscope sitting here at my elbow beside my desk: it's made a kid of me again. I have a lot of natural objets strewn about the house: stones, shells, feathers, etc; and I find myself repeatedly grabbing some new thing and putting it under the microscope for inspection. I would highly recommend this to anyone suffering from cabin fever. You will remember how beautiful nature is, and what a joy it is to contemplate it with no other motive than to enjoy its beauty. And that's why I wrote: to encourage everyone to get themselves a stereo microscope and see the world anew. Do it! Ellen -- Ellen Hornig 212 Grafton St Shrewsbury MA 01545