Patent ID: 7085045

Claim:
A stereoscopic microscope, comprising: an objective lens, having an optical axis, which causes a light flux from an observation object point to be substantially collimated; left and right afocal zooming systems, each having an optical axis and each receiving the substantially collimated light from the objective lens; left and right afocal relay systems which receive light from the left and right afocal zooming systems, respectively; an ocular tube optical system which receives light from the left and right afocal relay systems and forms magnified images using an eyepiece lens in each of said left and right afocal light fluxes received from the left and right afocal relay systems; and at least one beam splitter that is arranged in each optical path between said left and right afocal zooming systems and said ocular tube optical system; wherein the objective lens, the left and right afocal zooming systems, the left and right afocal relay systems, and the at least one beam splitter are accommodated in a housing of the stereoscopic microscope; each of the beam splitters that are arranged in the left optical path and in the right optical path splits off a light flux by reflection, and two light fluxes that are split off by the beam splitters have optical axes that are substantially parallel; at least two regions are provided in the housing where portions of two light fluxes intersect; and the portions of two light fluxes that intersect include the optical axes of said two light fluxes that are split off.