Microscope: Parts and Function

3 structural parts of the

microscope:
 Objective lenses – These are the
1. Head - This is also known as the body. major lenses used for specimen
It carries the optical parts in the upper visualization. They have a magnification
part of the microscope. power of 40x-100X. There are about 1-
2. Base - It acts as microscopes support. 4 objective lenses placed on one
It also carries microscopic illuminators. microscope, in that some are rare
3. Arm – This is the part connecting the facing and others face forward. Each
base and to the head and the eyepiece lens has its own magnification power.
tube to the base of the microscope. It  Nose piece – also known as the
gives support to the head of the revolving turret. It holds the objective
microscope and it is also used when lenses. It is movable hence it Cal revolve
carrying the microscope. the objective lenses depending on the
magnification power of the lens.
 The Adjustment knobs – These are
Optical parts of a microscope and knobs that are used to focus the
microscope. There are two types of
their functions:
adjustment knobs:
 Eyepiece – also known as the ocular. - fine adjustment knobs
This is the part used to look through the - coarse adjustment knobs.
microscope. It’s found at the top of the
microscope. Its standard magnification  Stage – This is the section in which the
is 10x with an optional eyepiece having specimen is placed for viewing. They
magnifications from 5X to 30X. have stage clips that hold the specimen
 Eyepiece tube – it’s the eyepiece slides in place.
holder. It carries the eyepiece just - The most common stage is the
above the objective lens. In some mechanical stage, which allows the
microscopes such as the binoculars, the control of the slides by moving the
eyepiece tube is flexible and can be slides using the mechanical knobs on
rotated for maximum visualization, for the stage instead of moving them
variance in distance. For monocular manually.
microscopes, they are none flexible.
 Microscope: Parts and Function

 Aperture – This is a hole on the  Condenser focus knob – this is a knob

microscope stage, through which the that moves the condenser up or down
transmitted light from the source thus, controlling the focus of light on
reaches the stage. the specimen.
 Microscopic illuminator – This is the  Abbe Condenser – this is a condenser
microscopes light source, located at the specially designed for high-quality
base. It is used instead of a mirror. It microscopes, which makes the
captures light from an external source condenser to be movable and allows
of a low voltage of about 100v. very high magnification of above 400X.
 Condenser – These are lenses that are High-quality microscopes normally have
used to collect and focus light from the a high numerical aperture than
illuminator into the specimen. They play objective lenses.
a major role in ensuring clear sharp  The rack stop – It controls how far the
images are produced with a high stages should go preventing the
magnification of 400X and above. The objective lens from getting too close to
higher the magnification of the the specimen slide which may damage
condenser, the more the image clarity. the specimen. It is responsible for
 Diaphragm – it’s also known as the preventing the specimen slide from
iris. Its found under the stage of the coming too far up and hitting the
microscope and its primary role is to objective lens.
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.
- For high-quality microscopes, the
diaphragm comes attached with an
Abbe condenser and combined they are
able to control the light focus and light
intensity that reaches the specimen.