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