Compound Microscope

A compound microscope is made up of at least two lenses which are the objective lens and the eyepiece lens. The objective lens is responsible for actually projecting an image of the object that is placed onto the microscope. When you are looking through a compound microscope, the part that you are actually looking through with your eyes is called the eyepiece lens and this lens is responsible for magnifying the image that is projected by the objective lens.

The magnification strength of the eyepiece lens is generally the power of 10X. The most common magnification strength of the objective lens is typically 4X, 10X, 40X and 100X. There is a way of figuring out the total magnification strength of a compound microscope, you just need to multiply the strength of the eyepiece lens by the strength of the objective lens. So for example if the strength of the eyepiece lens was 10X and you were using an objective lens with the strength of 40X then your magnification strength would be 400X.

There are certain limitations of how much a microscope can magnify an object before it is no longer visible to the human eye. The limit that a human eye can process an image at is about 2000X, anything after that and the human brain is not able to decode the way that the image is being displayed. For this reason, most microscopes will only go up to about 1000X in magnification strength.

A compound microscope, like any other type of microscope, is very fragile instrument that should always be cared for in the proper manner. This means that you must handle the device with care while you are transporting it from one place to another. If you are going to be carrying the microscope then you should hold the base of the microscope with one hand while using your other hand to hold onto the neck of the instrument. This will prevent any unnecessary and accidental damage since those two parts of the microscope are the strongest and most sturdy part of the tool. When you are actually using a compound microscope, you should always place it upon a flat and even surface that is well supported. You do not want to place a microscope onto an uneven surface that may cause it to tip over while it is being used. A microscope that falls over on its side can easily be damaged since there are lots of very easily breakable parts connected to it.

A compound microscope should be properly cleaned like any other type of microscope. You should always be sure and clean the lenses, but make sure that you are using an approved cloth while cleaning the glass lenses in order to prevent scratching and scuffing on the lens. You can easily purchase approved cleaning supplies from a microscope dealer.

If you are looking for a microscope that is going to be easily used in a variety of different situations, then the compound microscope is a great choice for an array of different applications.