Scanning Electron Microscope
This is my modern TESCAN SEM which can magnify nicely up to about 80,000x under the right conditions. The box pointing at my head is an elemental analyzer called EDS for short. The EDS allows me to elementally analyze microscopic particles smaller than a blood cell. This is one of my main workhorse instruments and has been involved in much of my research from dino bones to DB Cooper.
This is my old but beloved 1985 JEOL T-300 that was used daily at Owens Corning for 20 years when it was replaced and I bought it off Ebay. It can magnify up to 200,000x but realistically the image on these older machines gets pretty fuzzy after 50k. Besides just magnifying images, this system has a Kevex x-ray analysis probe that can elementally analyze micro-particles.
