T1.2: Microscopy - What it is

• Microscopy

  The use of microscopes
• Light microscope

  • Base
  • Arm
  • Light source (lamp or mirror)
  • Stage
  • Objective lenses
  • Eyepiece lens
  • Body tube
  • Coarse and fine focusing knobs
• Object

  The real object or sample that you're looking at
• Image

  The image that we see when we look down the microscope
• How a light microscope works

  1. Light from the room hits the mirror and is reflected upwards through the object

  2. Light passes through the objective lens

  3. Light passes through the eyepiece lens

  4. Light enters the eye
• Magnification

  How many times larger the image is than the object
• Magnification = image size / object size
• Resolution

  The shortest distance between two points on an object that can still be distinguished as two separate entities
• Higher resolution

  More details can be seen, less blurry the image