When we sit down at our microscopes, we assume that the environment is ideal - clean and quiet, with little to distract us from the sample. If an obvious distraction does occur, such as a bump to the instrument, or a big power surge, we look carefully and wonder, “Has the sample been damaged? Will the photograph be messed up?”

There are disturbances we may not notice, some of which are discussed in the Microscopy Listserver. One problem I have been involved in mitigating is the degradation of image quality (primarily decreased resolution) caused by vibration. We may not be aware if we have this problem, because the body is a lot less sensitive to vibration than a microscope. I will talk about the general nature of vibration, how it affects microscopy, and some thoughts on possible mitigation techniques.