Patent ID: 7589330

Claim:
An ultraviolet microscope apparatus comprising: a light source for generating ultraviolet light; an image capturing unit for obtaining an observation image of a sample by capturing an image of the sample on which the ultraviolet light is irradiated; a synthesis observation image generating unit for generating a synthesis observation image of the sample based on a plurality of observation images of the same sample, the observation images being obtained by the image capturing unit in a same field of view under illumination by different wavelength bands of the ultraviolet light; and a display unit for displaying the image generated by the synthesis observation image generating unit; wherein: the synthesis observation image is a difference image of the sample generated based on two observation images obtained under illumination by respective different wavelength bands of the ultraviolet light; and the synthesis observation image generating unit generates the difference image by calculating, for each pixel, a difference between brightness values of pixels at corresponding positions in the two observation images, and by establishing a correspondence between a value of the calculated difference and a brightness value of a pixel having a corresponding position in the difference image.