The collection itself may occupy a couple of cubic feet, but the mountain of broken rock brought home to search for tiny crystals at leisure fills the basement to capacity, and overflows into other rooms as the years go by. The home of the late Paul Seel, another member of the Micromounters Hall of Fame, had boxes of minerals in every room, under his bed, and even on each step of the stairway to the bedrooms. It goes with the territory. Having established those reasons, we might then have a look at what a micromounter actually needs to carry on with the hobby. Clearly, the first thing is a microscope.
Microscopes are expensive.
They are among the few modern scientific tools that have appreciated in value. Still, a reasonable microscope for a beginner does not have to break the bank. In fact, many micromounters, well established today, began with a simple hand lens. The next consideration is illumination. A small, transformer-driven high intensity light will do for a start.