MICROSCOPE

AIM: To study Compound Microscope and its Parts.

Introduction

 The term microscope can be split into two separate words, ‘micro’ and ‘scope’, where
the term ‘micro’ means small or tiny, and ‘scope’ means to view or to observe.
Therefore, a microscope can be understood as an instrument to observe tiny or small
elements.
 The optical microscope often referred to as the light microscope, is a type of microscope
that uses visible light and a system of lenses to magnify images of small subjects.
 There are two basic types of optical microscopes:
1. Simple microscope
2. Compound microscope
 The term “compound” in compound microscopes refers to the microscope having more
than one lens.
 Devised with a system of combination of lenses, a compound microscope consists of
two optical parts, namely the objective lens and the ocular lens.

Principle: it is used to visualize objects that are not visible to the naked eye. This is done by
magnifying the objects by the use of one or more convex lenses placed in sequence along the
same line.

PARTS:

1 Supporting part
2 Optical Part

Supporting Part:

Body tube: it is the wide tube attached to the arm with a rack and pinion arrangement
vertically. It provides attachment to the nose piece, bears objective lens at lower end, eye
piece objective at its upper end. The hallow space in the tube is the site where the real
inverted image of the objective is formed. Body tube is also called head of microscope.

Arm: it is a ‛C’ Shape solid structure.It supports the head or body tube and connects it to the
base of microscope.It refers to the holding portion of a microscope, which is used to carry the
microscopes.
Base: It is horse ‛U’ Shape structure and it is supports the bottom portion of microscopes on
which the arm portion is standing. It holds all the essential components. Also it is provide
support of microscope on the working table.

Pillar: It is situated on the base and bears whole weight of the microscope and support the
stage. Upper end makes a moveable joint with the arm. This help in fitting the arm against the
base as any desired angle.

Inclination joint:It is a movable joint, through which the body of the microscope is held to
the base by the pillars. The body can be bent at this joint into any inclined position, as desired
by the observer, for easier observation. In new models, the body is permanently fixed to the
base in an inclined position, thus needing no pillar or joint.

Stage:it is also called as platform. It is a rectangular, round or square shape with circular hole
in the center. Two clips are fixed on the stage to hold the slide and provided with two screw
to move the slide in either vertical or longitudinal direction.

Types: a. Fixed stage

b. Mechanical stage

Fixed stage: A rectangular plate fitted forward form the top of the pillar, providing the plat
dorm for the placing the slide. It has a center aperture that allow transmission of the light rays
from below.

Mechanical stage: It is in form of a miniature venire caliper with a spring lock, to hold the
slide firm on the fixed stage. It has possesses two adjustment screws, which allows antero-
posterior as well as lateral movement of the slide on the fixed stage.

Rough adjustment:Screw is to be used to move the body tube along with objectives in
upward and downward direction during focusing the objectives to obtainedthe gross image.

Fine Adjustment: Used to the slow movement of the body tube of the microscope to obtain
clearcut image of the objective.

Optical Parts:

Nose Piece: it is attached to the lower end of the body tube. It has lens of different powers.
By revolving the nose piece any lens can be placed over the slide to be observed.
Eye piece: Eye piece is placed at the top of the body tube. It has different power (5X, 10X
etc).

Condenser: it is fitted below the fixed stage. It has two lenses mounting into short cylinder.
Iris diaphragm is providing to control the amount of light entering the microscope. It can be
raised or lowered with the screw. It help to receive the light reflected by the mirror.

Mirror: Mirror is fitted below the condenser to reflect the light from the source into the
condenser. Mirror has two surfaces plain (flat surface) and concave.

Lens:

Objective lenses: There are three objective lenses with different magnifying powers.

Objective magnification Eyepiece magnification Total magnification Name of lens

10X 10X 100X Low power

40X/45X 10X 400X/450X High power

100X 10X 1000X Oil immersion

Procedure:

o Keep the microscope where maximum light is available.

o Objective is turned and adjusted in line with the eye piece.
o Light is adjusted by tilting the mirror towards the source of light and adjusting further
with the help of iris diaphragm.
o Observing slide is placed on the stage, object is adjust over the stage operative and
located with a low power objective by using coarse adjustment and fine adjustment.

Uses:

RBC counting, WBC counting, DLC, Platelet, Sperm counting, Urine and Stool
microscopic examinations.
Compound microscope: (1) Base, (2) Pillars, (3) Handle, (4) Body tube, (5) Coarse
adjustment screw, (6) Fine adjustment screw, (7) Fixed stage, (8) Mechanical stage, (9) Fixed
and revolving nose pieces, (10) Objective lenses, (11) Mirror, (12) Condenser, and (13) Eye-
piece