Typically, a compound microscope is used for viewing samples at high magnification (40 - 1000x), which is achieved by the combined effect of two sets of lenses: the ocular lens (in the eyepiece) and the objective lenses (close to the sample).

​Microscope Parts

• ​Ocular Lens

• ​Stage

• ​Objective Lenses

• ​Diaphragm

• ​Coarse Adjustment Knob

• ​Fine Adjustment Knob

• ​Light

​How to Focus A Microscope

• Start with lowest power objective lens (eg. 4x)

• Look through the eyepiece and move the coarse adjustment knob until the image comes into focus.

• Move the microscope slide around until the sample is in the center of the field of view (what you see).

• Use the fine adjustment knob to focus with the clearest image