Compound Binocular Microscope And It's Parts

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In this article, we will share Some information about the compound binocular microscope and its parts. And if you are interested in more articles, then make sure to comment us below.

Microscope:

A microscope is an optical instrument that is used to produce images of minute/ tiny objects (specimens) like cells, tissues, microorganisms, etc. in an enlarged form.

There are mainly two kinds of light microscopes:

1. Simple microscope: As a name, it is a simple and magnifying lens that has the magnification power of 2x to 200x.
2. Compound microscope: The complex instrument is fitted with a battery of lenses. In this type of microscope, the objective lens remains near the object and the eyepiece lens is present near the observer's lens. Make a note that both objective and eyepiece lenses have variable magnification. The compound microscope can be monocular that has a single eyepiece and binocular that has two eyepieces.

Compound Binocular Microscope:

A compound binocular microscope is a type of microscope comprising of the binocular eyepiece that produces a highly magnified and maximized image of microscopic objects, cells, tissues, etc.

The magnifying power of compound binocular microscopic lenses:

1. 4x magnification: It is low power magnification and it has a red colour code. It is used for scanning and viewing platelet aggregation, filarial parasites, quality of slide, etc.
2. 10x magnification: It has a yellow colour code. It is mainly used to view cells counts.
3. 40x magnification: It has a light blue colour code. It is mostly used to view cells counts more clearly than viewed under 10x magnification. It is specially used to view white blood cells in a bigger size.
4. 100x magnification:  It is a high power magnification and has a white colour code. It uses oil immersion to view the morphology of cells, parasites, etc. Liquid paraffin is used on the slide when viewing under 100x magnification.

Parts of the compound binocular microscope:

1. Base or foot: It is the U-shaped structure located at the base of the microscope and supports the entire weight of the microscope.
2. Illuminator: It is located on the top of the base that is used as the source of light to the microscope.
3. Pillar: It is the structure of the microscope that projects vertically from the base and support the mechanical stage of the microscope.
4. Condenser/diaphragm: It is the part of a microscope located above the illuminator and below the stage that is used to gather light from the light source. It adjusts the intensity of light and uses it to magnify the specimen placed over it.
5. Mechanical stage: It is the flat, rectangular part of a microscope that is connected to the arms lower end. The specimen is kept on the stage for examining and studying. The centre of the stage has a hole through which light can pass it.
6. Clips: The upper part of the mechanical stage consists of two clips that are used to hold the specimen slide in the correct position.
7. Objective lenses: There are four objective lenses at the bottom of the body tube that is connected to the revolving nose piece. The lenses are 4x, 10x, 40x and 100x as mentioned above.
8. Nose piece: It is a rotating and circular part that is connected to the body tube at the lower end. It is the part where objective lenses are fixed.
9. Body tube: It is a tubular and hollow structure located at the upper part of the arm of the microscope. It can be moved up and down using adjustment knobs.
10. Diopter adjustment: It is the part of the binocular microscope that helps you to adjust the eyepiece suitable for your differences between the two eyes and help you to focus on one eyepiece to view the specimen.
11. Ocular/Eyepiece lens: It is a lens that is located at the top of the body tube. On the rim of the eyepiece there is magnifying power like 5x, 10x, 15x, etc. The specimen or objects magnified images can be observed at the eyepiece.
12. Head: It is the part of a microscope located above the arm and body tube, where the Ocular lens is fixed.
13. Arm: It is the strong and curved part that handles the entire microscope.
14. Coarse adjustment knob: It is a large knob that is used for changing the position of the body tube up and down so that the object to be examined should be focused exactly.
15. Fine adjustment knob: It is the small knob that is used for fine and sharp focusing of the object to be examined.
16. Light switch: As per the name, it is the switch that is located at the base and used to on and off the light source of the microscope.

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