Microscopy: It's a lamp, how hard could it be?

I have an old American Optics microscope that relies on a small (cracked) mirror for illumination.  I thought I'd be clever and build a LED lamp for it.  This should be a quick little fun project.

I'm on my third revision now and it has been educational.

First up, why learn just one new thing when you can learn multiple things simultaneously, right?  I decided to open source this and do my development with Source control on GitHub.  That's here:  https://github.com/ElizabethGreene/SpencerMicroscopeLamp The internet said I should learn how to do branches and pull requests, and I think I have that sorted out.  Yeah!

The first version didn't have a dimmer on it and even with the diaphragm cranked all the way down it was too bright to be safe or for good images.  I had a Leviton wall-switch dimmer in my box-o-junk and plumbed that in to make it usable.  This worked fairly well, but I didn't particularly want to double or triple the size of the enclosure just to hold the dimmer.  I thought I'd be clever and get a cord with an integral dimmer from Amazon.  Lamp Cord with Dimmer, LED Timing Function，Dimmable & Timer 2/4/8Hrs, Dimmer for String Lights Max 360W,18 AWG 2 Prong Extension Cord for Indoor/Outdoor String Lights, Indoor Plants, Floor Lamp (Affiliate link) sounds perfect, right?

Unfortunately, no.

I wired it up last night and it doesn't work well with my tiny 3-Watt 120VAC LED bulb.  On the highest power setting it turns off within a second of lighting. :(  On lower power settings it has causes rolling shutter that makes it hard to photograph anything.  Also, as you can see in the picture, the LEDs are visible in the image.

If I fiddle with the diaphragm and lamp position the LEDs become significantly less intrusive, but I don't know what I don't know about microscopy to understand the impact of that.  Going back to the "Learn Github" side quest, I'll open an issue on it.

The rolling shutter thing is a showstopper for my ultimate application, and I have zero desire to wait for shipping.  I guess I'll dig out my old dimmer switch and either make a case for it or integrate it into the enclosure. :/  I don't know what I should do, if anything, about the LEDs shining through.  I think I'll ignore that problem and work on some other tools instead.  A microtome for cutting tissue slices and a camera mount would be nice.