The microscope eyepieces are designed to place your eyeball about 2 cm away.  Thus, for iMicroscope to work, the iPhone will have to be about 2 cm away from the eyepiece as well.  However, this can be difficult because the human hand is not as steady as the human head1, and the iPhone optics are less flexible than the human eye.  Getting a good shot in iMicroscope consists of placing the iPhone exactly at the correct position without letting it shake.

Tips to reduce shaking (see pictures to left):

1. •“Follow the tunnel” (keep reading)
   

2. •Plant your hands securely on the microscope
   

3. •Grip the iPhone with as many fingers as you can.
   

4. •Touch your fingers to each other.
   

5. •Squeeze the iPhone to stiffen your muscles.  Don’t strain them however, as that also increases shaking.2
   

6. •Wide view eyepieces are easier while learning, but when you’re expert all microscopes are easy.
   

7. •If you are still having trouble with shaking, try holding your breath for a few seconds before the shot.  Believe it or not, your breathing moves your hands.
   

8. •Don’t hold your breath too long.  It will give your body an adrenaline rush which causes your hands to shake.
   

9. •Practice.
   

To demonstrate how it works, first do the following: using your eye, move slowly up to the eyepiece.  You will notice a small bright disc on the eyepiece.  If you move your head to the right, the disc goes left, and vice versa.  Eventually, as your eye approaches, this disc expands to fill your field of view and you are looking through the microscope.  Then, when you move your eye even closer to the eyepiece, the disc will shrink again, but now when you move your head to the right, the disc will now move to the right (opposite direction as before).  Using the iPhone, you will notice the exact same behavior except that the iPhone will be apparently much more sensitive to this effect because your hand is, well, human.

The solution is to steady your hand by placing your fingers on the eyepiece -- preferably in two places and use both hands.  This damps the random vibrations present in human muscle and also locks the motion of the iPhone to the position of the microscope.  Then position the light disc in the middle of the camera view, and move very slowly inward towards the eyepiece.  At the optimal distance, the disc will show clearly and fill the view.  Don’t be concerned if the image flickers a bit so long as the entire disc is clearly visible and the image is in focus. The iPhone is in video mode until you tell it to snap the shot.  It then takes an exposure that averages away the flickers and provides a nice image.

The above is best described as “follow the tunnel.”  Just like someone new to microscopy has to practice for a few minutes before he can center his eyes on the eyepieces, so will it take a few minutes for you to train your hands accordingly.

Incidentally, one benefit you probably haven’t envisioned is that the above techniques work in any situation which requires very steady hands -- such as using tweezers to move small objects, soldering, etc.

1. 1)The human head weighs about 5 kg.  The hand is about 1/2 kg.  Lighter objects are more susceptible to acceleration and so tend to shake more.
   

2. 2)For those who remember their physics, consider a ping pong ball.  It only takes a light touch to make it move.  However, if you pinch it between two springs, then any touch must overcome the stiffness of the springs.  The stiffer the springs, the harder it is to move the ball even though the ball is light.  In the human arm, however, if you excessively stiffen, then the muscles vibrate of their own accord but for biological reasons.  You’ll learn the correct balance with a little practice.  (For any bio people out there, why is that?  I’m curious!)