Two very good friends of mine recently gifted me an old KEN - A - VISION projection microscope. I've had my eye on one of these for some time now. Not only does the functionality appeal to me but the form factor is so sexily retro that it really begs to have a prominent place in one's home.
Here's the basic shape of the creature in question. In this case; the head is tilted horizontally. This allows for projection on a wall or screen. The head can also face directly down allowing for smaller projection on a medium between the legs of the scope. Alternatively, there is a mirror below the objective which allows for ceiling projection when the head is faced horizontally.
My intention is to fully clean the scope, dissasemble it and paint it (likely bright orange)
I have a few projects in mind which involve this particular piece of equipment. My first venture will be to use it to create a cyanotype on the wall of my bedroom.
Cyanotypes are a photo process which involve treating a surface with a mixture of ammonium iron(III) citrate and potassium ferricyanide. The combination of these chemicals in proper proportion results in a UV sensitive coating which will produce permanent images when masked with a photo negative, positive, or even the shadow of an object.
In my case I intend to coat a section of my wall in this mixture, replace the bulb in my scope with one which fills more of the UV spectrum than the stock model, and project for several minutes a crystal image on the wall. Here is a (admittedly poor) image of my scope projecting an image on said wall.
