Microscope Simulator Lab

The first microscope was made by a father and son known as Hans and Zacharias Janssen in 1595, the magnification ranged from 3X to 9X back then and looked like this





Robert Hooke and Anton van Leeuwenhoek contributed to the microscope. In 1665 Hooke was able to see the features of plant tissue that he discovered under the microscope. Leeuwenhoek made one lens microscope and though he was not the first person to build a microscope, the ones that he did build worked for this time period. The first person to describe bacteria and protozoans and helped prove the theory of blood circulation was Leeuwenhoek.

The steps for using a microscope are as follows..
Once the microscope has been powered on and while looking at the microscope, turn the microscope light on and raise the rheostat lever to “10”. Next choose your slide you want to view and place it on the stage making sure the stage clips are holding the slide in place. Next turn your ocular’s to select the objective lens, using the lowest objective to start.. By using the XY controls you need to move the slide around until it can be seen in the light circle. Make sure to close the iris and then raise the stage all the way up by turning the coarse knobs away from you. Now looking through the microscope you need to adjust the oculars to view the slide. Using the coarse focus knobs you can bring the slide into view. Now you want to use the fine focus knobs to bring the slide to a clearer view and use the XY controls to get it centered in the field of view before moving to a higher objective.

This is a picture of a cheek smear that I viewed through the microscope:
The stage is where you place the slide you are viewing and keep in place with the stage clips.

The focus knobs which are adjusted looking through the microscope help to bring the slide to a clearer view.

The iris is adjusted looking through the microscope and this allows the light in.

The oculars are nest adjusted looking through the microscope and these are the eye pieces you look through to view the slide.

The objectives are best adjusted looking at, these allow you to change the powers of which you are viewing the slide at.

I enjoyed doing this lab I wasn't expecting to get to look through the microscope like I did so that was pretty cool. I feel pretty familiar, right now, with the microscope and like I could use one properly if it was put in front of me. Microscopes have come a long way with all the technology our world has and have helped with many advances in all parts of our world.