Microscope

A tool that magnifies small objects, allowing us to see details not visible to the naked eye. It’s important for studying tiny structures, cells, and microorganisms, advancing fields like biology and medicine.

Microscope

This is a cylindrical metallic tube that holds the eyepiece lens at one end and connects to the nose piece at the other end. It is also called a body tube or eyepiece tube.

Head

This is the part connecting the base to the head. It supports the head of the microscope and is also used when carrying the microscope.

Arm

This is the lowermost part of the microscope that supports the entire microscope structure. It provides stability for the microscope, illuminators, light switches, and electrical wiring systems are fitted in here.

Base

Also known as the ocular lens, is closest to the viewer’s eye. They are located at the top of the microscope. This part is used to look at the specimen and its lenses comes in different magnification powers from 5X to 30X, but the most common ocular lenses are of 10X or 15X magnification.

Eyepiece

It is a control knob present only in the binocular microscope that is used to change focus on one eyepiece. It is used to correct any difference in vision and compensate for the differences in vision between the viewer’s two eyes.

Diopter Adjustment

Is a movable circular structure that houses all the objective lenses. It is also called the revolving turret. It is connected to the body tube and lies just above the stage. It can be rotated clockwise or counterclockwise to increase or decrease the magnification.

Nose Piece

These are the lenses that is closest to the specimen. They are fitted on the nosepiece. A standard microscope has 3 to 4 of these lenses with different magnifying powers: 4X, 10X, 40X, and 100X.

Objective Lenses

This adjustment knob is used for fine adjustment; it is the smaller knob and is used to move the stage up or down very slowly. The stage covers a very small distance on each rotation of the fine adjustment knob. It is used to sharpen the image and is mostly used while viewing under high power.

Fine Adjustment Knob

This adjustment knob is used for focusing the image under low power magnification. It is a larger knob and is used to move the stage up or down very rapidly.

Coarse Adjustment Knob

This is the section in which the specimen is placed for viewing. They have stage clips that hold the specimen slides in place. The most common of this part is the mechanical stage, which allows the control of the slides by moving the slides using the mechanical knobs on the stage instead of moving them manually.

Stage

These are the control knobs used to move the stage mechanically. There are 2 knobs: one for moving left and right, and the other for moving forward or backward.

Stage Control Knobs

This is a hole in the microscope stage through which the transmitted light from the source reaches the stage.

Aperture

Is the light source. In compound microscopes, a mirror, which reflects the light from an external source to the sample is used.

Illuminator

These are lenses that are used to collect and focus light from the illuminator into the specimen. They are found under the stage next to the diaphragm of the microscope. They play a major role in ensuring clear, crisp, sharp images are produced with a high magnification of 400X and above,

Condenser

It is also known as the iris. It is found under the stage of the microscope, and its primary role is to control the amount of light that reaches the specimen. It’s an adjustable apparatus, hence controlling the light intensity and the size of the beam of light that gets to the specimen.

Diaphragm

Is an electrical control device that is used to on and off the illuminator.

Light Switch

Controls the voltage supplied to the light bulb, controlling the intensity (brightness) of the light bulb.

Brightness Adjustment