Microscope Parts

Front 1

Eyepiece

Back 1

The lens or group of lenses that is closest to the eye in a microscope, telescope, or other optical instruments.

Front 2

Body Tube

Back 2

The microscope body tube separates the objective and the eyepiece and assures continuous alignment of the optics.

Front 3

Coarse Adjustment Knob

Back 3

This knob is used to raise and lower the stage of the microscope

Front 4

Fine Adjustment Knob

Back 4

This knob is inside the coarse adjustment knob and is used to bring the specimen into sharp focus under low power and is used for all focusing when using high power lenses.

Front 5

Inclination Joint

Back 5

The inclination joint of a microscope is located at the bottom of the instrument, where the base connects to the arm.

Front 6

Revolving Nosepiece

Back 6

This is the part that holds two or more objective lenses and can be rotated to easily change power.

Front 7

Objective Lenses

Back 7

The simplest optical microscope is the magnifying glass and is good to about ten times (10X) magnification. The compound microscope has two systems of lenses for greater magnification, 1) the ocular, or eyepiece lens that one looks into and 2) the objective lens, or the lens closest to the object.

Front 8

Stage

Back 8

A small platform on a microscope where the specimen is mounted for examination

Front 9

Condenser

Back 9

A condenser is an optical lens which renders a divergent beam from a point source into a parallel or converging beam to illuminate an object

Front 10

Mirror

Back 10

Allows you to direct ambient light up through the hole in the stage and illuminate the specimen.

Front 11

Base

Back 11

The bottom of the microscope used for support.