I. Microscope Parts and Functions

I.
LIST DOWN THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE MICROSCOPE A COMPOUND MICROSCOPE AND GIVE
THEIR SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS.
1. Head – This is also known as the body, it carries the optical parts in the
upper part of the microscope.
2. Base – It acts as microscopes support. It also carriers the microscopic
illuminators.
3. Arms – This is the part connecting the base and to the head and
the eyepiece tube to the base of the microscope. It gives support to the
head of the microscope and it also used when carrying the microscope.
Some high-quality microscopes have an articulated arm with
more than one joint allowing more movement of the microscopic head for
better viewing.
4. Eyepiece – also known as the ocular. this is the part used to look through the microscope. It’s found at the top
of the microscope. Its standard magnification is 10x with an optional eyepiece having magnifications from 5X –
30X.
5. Eyepiece tube – it’s the eyepiece holder. It carries the eyepiece just above the objective lens. In some
microscopes such as the binoculars, the eyepiece tube is flexible and can be rotated for maximum visualization,
for variance in distance. For monocular microscopes, they are none flexible.
6. Objective lenses – These are the major lenses used for specimen visualization. They have a magnification
power of 40x-100X. There are about 1- 4 objective lenses placed on one microscope, in that some are rare
facing and others face forward. Each lens has its own magnification power.
7. Nose piece – also known as the revolving turret. It holds the objective lenses. It is movable hence it call revolve
the objective lenses depending on the magnification power of the lens.
8. The Adjustment knobs – These are knobs that are used to focus the microscope. There are two types of
adjustment knobs i.e. fine adjustment knobs and the coarse adjustment knobs.
9. Stage – This is the section on which the specimen is placed for viewing. They have stage clips hold the
specimen slides in place. The most common stage is a mechanical stage, which allows the control of the slides
by moving the slides using the mechanical knobs on the stage instead of moving it manually.
10. Aperture – This is a hole on the microscope stage, through which the transmitted light from the source reaches
the stage.
11. Microscopic illuminator – This is the microscopes light source, located at the base. It is used instead of a
mirror. it captures light from an external source of a low voltage of about 100v.
12. Condenser – 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 sharp images are produced with a high magnification of 400X and above. The higher the magnification of
the condenser, the more the image clarity. More sophisticated microscopes come with an Abbe condenser that
has a high magnification of about 1000X.
13. Diaphragm – it’s also known as the iris. It’s found under the stage of the microscope and its primary role is to
control the amount of light that reaches the specimen. Its 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.
14. Condenser focus knob – this is a knob that moves the condenser up or down thus controlling the focus of light
on the specimen.
15. Abbe Condenser – this is a condenser specially designed on high-quality microscopes, which makes the
condenser to be movable and allows very high magnification of above 400X. The high-quality microscopes
normally have a high numerical aperture than that of the objective lenses.
16. The rack stops – It controls how far the stages should go preventing the objective lens from getting too close to
the specimen slide which may damage the specimen. It is responsible for preventing the specimen slide from
coming too far up and hit the objective lens.

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