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Microscope

Parts of Light Microscope (aka compound microscope)  

  • Oculars - lens that you look through
  • Body Tube - metal casing through which light passes to the oculars
  • Arm - where you should hold the microscope when holding it
  • Coarse focus adjustment - should only be used w/ 4x or 10x objectives
  • Fine focus adjustment - used w/ powerful magnifications
  • Nosepiece - holds the objectives
  • Objectives - lenses mounted on the nosepiece
  • Stage - where the specimen is placed
  • Condenser - allows light onto the specimen
  • Iris diaphragm - ring that can be opened/closed to allow light in
  • Condenser Adjustment - used to manipulate the iris diaphragm
  • Lamp - light source
  • Base - bottom of the microscope

Preparing a wet mount  

  • place drop of water on clean microscopic slide
  • place coverslip on at 45 degree angle
  • slowly cover the drop so that no air bubbles remain

Focusing the microscope  

  • use lowest power objective first
  • use coarse adjustment
  • change to higher objectives
  • only use fine adjustive w/ high objectives
  • parafocal - stays in focus after changing objectives
  • parcaentered - stays centered after changing objectives
  • field of view - area that you can see through the microscope
  • wet mount - glass slide containing specimen, usually in water

Finding total magnification and field of view  

  • total magnification = objective's magnification x ocular magnification
  • diameter under low power x low magnification = diameter under high power x high magnification
  • area = pi x radius2

Dissecting Microscope (aka stereoscopic microscope)  

  • more working distance than light microscope
  • light from either top or bottom
  • only 1 objective
Subject: 
Biology
Subject X2: 
Biology

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