To magnify the eye, surgeons look through a powerful microscope mounted on the ceiling of the operating theatre at the University Eye Clinic at the Maastricht University Medical Centre. The microscope has been stabilised by the vibration damping Hunningbird device, which was originally designed for testing Darwin, a potential ESA space observatory. Hummingbird is mounted between the ceilingand the microscope’s arm in order to isolate it from the source of the vibrating disturbance.