Harold the Christmas Spider(s)

Google turned a couple stills into an animated
GIF automatically.  Wasn't that nice of them?

It's Harold, the Christmas Spider!

We took out some Christmas decorations today and Lily noticed a couple of dead spiders.  They looked kinda curly and scary, but my first thought was "let's look at them closer!"

When we were at the LaBrea Tar Pits I found a pocket microscope in the gift shop (I do love a good gift shop) and picked up a set as my souvenir for the day.  They were pretty cheap, but I can't remember how much.  Less than $20 for sure, plastic lens and all.  We've all used the magnifier for lots of interesting examinations, from beach sand to, well, Christmas spiders.  It has a white light to illuminate the subject, and a blue light for counterfit bill detection, but I don't know how to use that properly.  Nifty little case and it tucks in my travelling bag quite nicely.

I used an old trick - putting the camera lens right next to the magnifying lens.  It works for distance, also, using binoculars or a monocular.  It doesn't give you the best image in the world, but it's surprisingly effective.

Here is a quarter close up:

 And a few more pictures of Harold, the Christmas Spider..