Turn your Mac into an imaging microscope

Did you have a toy microscope when you were a kid? Ever think of hooking it up to a Mac? PT at Make has done just that on the cheap. He got an old Intel Play QX microscope on eBay for about $20, installed miXscope imaging software on an iBook, and set out to make screenshots and movies of the tiny invisible world under the microscope.

If you don't remember the Intel Play, it was a toy digital microscope that came out in 1999. It developed a following among not just kids, but microphotography enthusiasts too. Although the Intel Play wasn't made for Mac, it works with miXscope, an OS X app.
With this combination you can take screenshots of what you see under the lens at different magnifications, make time-lapse movies, and even draw on the images. I'm heading over to eBay to pick one up. I'll bet I can waste a lot of time with this toy.