The Compound Microscope: The Technical Field Of Microscopes

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Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes which is a device that views object or specimen that are too small to be seen with the naked eye.
In history, optical microscope is the first microscope to be developed containing one or more lenses producing an enlarged image of a sample placed in the focal plane by unidentified person. With the advancement of technology, compound microscopes that we are using today were claimed to be invented by Zacharias Jansen.
Compound microscope is a microscope forming a magnified image of small objects, by using a lens close to the object being viewed to collect light which focuses a real image of the object inside the microscope called the “objective lens”. The image is then magnified by a second …show more content…

The head or the body houses the optical parts in the upper part of the microscope. The base supports the microscope and houses the illuminator while the arm is used to carry the microscope since it is connected to the base and supports the head.
Other parts include eyepiece tube that holds the eyepieces in place above the objective lens. Nosepiece houses the objectives that are mounted on a rotating turret so that different objectives can be selected. Coarse and Fine-adjustment knobs are used to focus the microscope to the specimen. Stage is where the specimen to be viewed is placed and stage clips are used to manually move the slide to view the specimen from different sections. Illuminator is the light source for microscope located in the base. Condenser is used to collect and focus the light from the illuminator on to the specimen. Lastly, the iris diaphragm controls the amount of light reaching the specimen.
OBJECTIVES
The objectives were to identify the parts and functions of a compound microscope, learn to adjust the microscope for viewing biological specimens, and to learn to measure small objects using the principles of microscopy.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The experiment aimed to familiarize students from the parts and uses of a compound …show more content…

It enables us to know how to use a compound microscope.
RESULTS
The experiment was successful as the procedures in the manual were followed.
Part 1 of the experiment, the professor gave the details of the parts of the microscope and its uses very well; hence, we were able to perform part 2 of the experiment without hesitations.
Part 2 of the experiment, we placed the lowercase “e” into the stage and as we looked through the eyepiece, we saw an inverted lowercase “Ə”.
Part 3 of the experiment, we calculated the diameter of the field and got an answer of 10 micrometer (μm).
DISCUSSION
The objective lens in a compound microscope has a very short focal length compared to the eyepiece. After the light passes through the specimen, past the objective lens, and past the focal point of the objective lens, the image formed will be inverted. This image is the object that is seen by the eyepiece lens. The eyepiece lens acts only as a simple magnifier, and enlarges the image created by the objective lens. As a result, the image that is seen when looking through a compound microscope is inverted when compared to the specimen being examined. The image will be inverted due to the objective lens being

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