The Compound Microscope B ecause the lens systems in a microscope are composed of many lenses it is called compound. The typical illumination of specimens in which light passes through the specimen and travels to your eye is called bright field microscopy . Light has the following path. Diaphragm Mirror Light Source L ocate these parts of your microscope by referring to illustration above. L ight is provided by a precision built and aligned low voltage built in bulb which is reflected through the field iris diaphragm, the condenser, the condenser iris diaphragm, the specimen, the objective, the tube and the ocular.
T here are various control knobs on the microscope which affect the light path.
In addition, there are knobs for coarse and fine focus, as well as knobs to move the stage. Focusing the Objectives L ocate the coarse and fine focusing knobs on each side of your scope. Each knob does coarse and fine focusing. There is no separate knob for fine focusing. You will see how this works later.