Easy to Understand Guide on How to Use a Microscope

The five basic microscope steps to jump start your journey to becoming a microscope pro in no time: Prepare, Light, Setup, Focus and Zoom! Once you have your specimen, and your light ready to go, you just setup your microscope and get focused. You can then incrementally increase the zoom power and get up close to your sample, and see the whole microscopic world!

Depending on whether you already have purchased prepared slides to look at or whether you want to make your own sample, the first step is deciding what you want to view under the microscope.

If you already have a prepared slide from a microscope slide kit, you can skip onto Step 2.

If you wish to prepare a custom specimen, continue with this step.

You will need a small container of water and a pipette or eye dropper. There are two methods, depending on if you have a dry or wet specimen. The differences in the methods:

• Dry Specimen: let the dry specimen dry before viewing
• Wet Specimen: a wet specimen such as pond water must be looked at immediately so you can see the live microorganisms swimming around

To make custom slides with dry specimens:

1. Use a fresh slide or clean slide with a microfiber cloth to remove fingerprints and dust.
2. Place a few dry granules of your choice (salt, soil, a strand of hair, etc.) on blank slide.
3. Using included eye dropper, put a drop of water on top of specimen to hold in place.
4. Gently place coverslip on top of specimen and let dry before viewing.

To make custom slides with wet specimens:

1. Use a fresh slide or clean slide with a microfiber cloth to remove fingerprints and dust.
2. Sprinkle a drop of algae, pond, or dirty water, etc. on blank slide.
3. Place coverslip on top of specimen.
4. No additional drop of water is needed.
5. View immediately.

Step 2: Light

Lighting and illumination setup for your microscope is detrimental to viewing specimens properly. We will review how to power on the light source and turn up the light intensity all the way.

1. Place microscope on a stable surface.
2. Insert the end of the power cord into the microscope’s power port and plug the opposite end into any standard outlet.
3. Turn on light source by turning the power switch to the on position.
4. Find the light intensity dial on the side of the microscope and start with it all the way to the maximum setting.
5. You may also want to open up the iris diaphragm to the maximum...

*Please note: the condenser is preset to be 1-3mm from the bottom of specimen slide... Adjust only if necessary.

Step 3: Setup

Setting up your microscope properly creates a viable viewing experience. We’ll explain how to setup your microscope by guiding you through the installation of the eyepieces and the insertion of the specimen slide onto the stage.

1. Place eyepiece in the drawtube...
2. Ensure drawtube is always capped or has an eyepiece...
3. Start with lowest power eyepieces first...
4. Position slide on the mechanical stage and secure with clip.
5. Use stage knobs to center the specimen.
6. Make sure light is centered before continuing.

Step 4: Focus

One of the trickiest steps when using a microscope is properly focusing it. Go slowly and take your time.

WARNING: Turn focus knobs slowly. Avoid crushing the glass slide.

1. Rotate turret so lowest power objective lens is above the specimen...
2. Look into eyepiece and find image...
3. Adjust coarse and fine focus slowly.
4. Be careful not to confuse focus knob with condenser adjustment knob.
5. Adjust light intensity or diaphragm for best contrast.

Step 5: Zoom

Our final step requires calculations and magnification. Let’s go through the process to increase magnification using higher-powered objective lenses.

1. Start with the lowest magnification and go up one step at a time.
2. Rotate turret to change objective lens.
3. Refocus slightly using the fine focus knob.

Note: The 100x objective is only for oil immersion microscopy. Without immersion oil, it will not function properly.