Microscope

Microscopes were invented by Zacharis Janseen from Middleburg, Holland around the year 1595. The first compound microscope was basically a tube with a lens. Over the years the microscope has changed greatly and become more powerful. The most common microscope is the compound light microscope (pictured above).

The compound light microscope has many different levers and knobs that help to focus and view your specimen. Some of the parts include:

Stage: The stage is the where you place your slide with your specimen on it. You will use the stage clips to hold your slide in place. When placing the slide on the stage you want to place your specimen directly over the light.

Focus Knobs: Include the fine and coarse adjustment knobs. Each of these knobs will be used at some point while viewing your specimen. After placing your slide on the stage you want to slowly turn the coarse adjustment knob to move the slide up until the slide almost touches the lens. Now that you have done that you will want to look through your eyepiece at your slide and slowly turn the coarse adjustment knob until your specimen comes into view. Once your specimen comes into view you will want to switch to the fine adjustment knob to focus.

Iris: The iris of the microscope is also know as the diaphragm. It controls the amount of light which passes to the specimen. There are two types of diaphragms. There is the iris diagphragm which is a lever just under the stage in the front. The other type is the dial type which is located under the stage and has a rotating dial with different sized holes.

Oculars: The ocular is also known as the eyepiece. It is the closest group of lenses to our eyes. While looking in the eyepiece you want to adjust it until the circl of light becomes one and you no longer see it overlapping. If you wear glasses you will want to remove them while using the microscope.

Objectives: The objectives on the microscope are the magnification lenses. Most compound light microscopes have 3 - 4. 4x,10x,43x, and 100x oil emmersion. Total magnification = ocular power X objective power.