Microscope Lab Write-Up

The compound microscope has been around since the year 1590. That is when Zacharis Janssen, a Dutch eyeglass maker, created a compound microscope that ranged from 3x to 9x power. Then in 1660, another inventor named Robert Hook improved the compound microscope and termed the name "cell" in an attempt to describe plant tissue. But, it was Anton Van Leewenh who used the term Bacteria and Protozoans during his research. Today, microscopes are an essential front line tool for scientific research. Here are the 5 major components of the compound microscope.

Stage : The stage is the "platform" that is used to place the slide on. Once the slide is placed on the stage, you then need to use the Coarse focus knob to place the slide into the top position.

Coarse knob: This is used to move the stage up or down rapidly. With the objective lens set at 4x(low power), you will use the coarse knob to raise the stage up to the top and then you will use the X, Y knobs to center the slide over the Iris(illuminator). This is done without looking into the oculars. Once the slide is adjusted at the low power, then you switch over to high power. The Fine knob moves the stage slowly and this is used when you are using the oculars to view the slide under high power, or low power during initial set up of the slide.

Iris: Also known as an illuminator, is used to provide the reflective light for viewing the slide. This is adjusted according to clarity of slide while using the oculars.

Oculars: The eyepieces that are used to view the slide. Initial setting should be at 64. You then need to look through them with you eyes around three inches away and adjust until you have only one visible circle.

Objective lenses: Typically 3 to 4 lenses ranging from 4x,10x, and 100x power just to name a few. The lowest power setting is 4x. This is the setting during your coarse adjustment. Common since should tell you that the higher your power, the more you can see in detail on the slide. Some "high-speed" microscopes even have retractable lenses to prevent damage.
Microscopes are crucial to our own existence because this tool can look into the cellular depth of our bodies. Without this tool, it would be hard for us to understand what goes on in our own body. We would not have been able to come up with simple antibiotics to fight of deadly bacteria as an example. For it's size, the microscope is very powerful tool that has been helping man-kind since 1590.

This is an onion root tip under a compound microscope set at 40x power. At this level of magnification, it is possibble to see the cell walls and the nucleus of the cell.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

refrence. www.southwestschools.org/jsfaculty/microscopes/fathershtml