Before introducing parts of compound light microscope, let’s see first
- what is microscope,
- what is light microscope and finally,
- what is the simplest definition of “compound light microscope”.
Microscope is device that is used for observing and analyzing samples (specimens) that are not visible for human eyes or have not size enough big for necessary analysis.
With the development of science, nowadays different kinds of microscope can be found, depending on technology that is used for observing and analyzing.
Main types of microscopes (there are many other types and subtypes) are:
- Optical
- Electron and
- Scanning probe microscopes.
Optical microscope is also well known as light microscope.
Light microscopes are the oldest, first invented and still most used microscopes.
There are two types of light microscopes
- simple microscope and
- compound microscope.
Simple microscope does not have opportunity for high magnification.
Compound light microscope (hereinafter – microscope) has two types of lens, separate by location– objective and eyepiece.
This technique provides opportunity for much higher magnifications which can be used for observing samples for different purposes.
These nine are basic parts of one compound light microscope.

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Depending on the manufacturer, there are several different parts of microscope, but main parts, present in every microscope are:
- Eyepiece – the lens at the beginning, where the user looks through, usually with 10x lens. According to number of eyepiece lenses, there are monocular, binocular or trinocular microscopes.
- Turret – rotating part where the objective lens are installed
- Objective lenses – lenses which are close to the sample, in most of the cases there are 3 to 5 objective lenses in range between 4x-100x.
- Focus knobs – two of them, for coarse and fine adjustment
- Stage – where the sample which is observed is placed
- Illuminator – light source for a microscope
- Condenser – part for collecting and focusing the light from illuminator on the sample
- Diaphragm – Regulates the amount of light reaching the sample
- Base – mechanism that keeps all parts together
Further will be described the parts of a microscope that you should be familiar with, when buying one.
The online shops that were chosen are Amazon.com (as one of the biggest and famous) and Microscope.com (as most specialized for buying microscopes online).
Considering shopping filters on Amazon.com, compound microscopes can be differentiate (refine) by commercial parameters (international shipping, eligible for free shipping, average customer review, condition, price, discount, seller, availability) or by parameters referring only to microscope:
- Magnification
- Type (digital or optical) – Amazon.com differs to two types of compound microscopes – digital and optical.
- Brand
If you want to buy microscope from Microscope.com, you will have possibility to choose from only one commercial shopping filter (price) and much more shopping filters by parameters referring only to microscope:
1. Category
- Clinical & Lab
- Home & Hobby
- School & Student Microscopes
2. Eyepiece magnification (they offer only 10x)
3. Brand
- Carson
- Euromex
- Explorer
- Meiji Techno
- Motic
- Omano
- OptixCam
4. Head type
- Monocular
- Binocular
- Trinocular
- Ergonomic
5. Magnification type (they offer only one type – step)
6. Objective lens
- Achromatic
- Plan
- Semi-APO Plan
- Semi-Plan
7. Illumination type
- Halogen
- LED
- Fluorescent
- Incandescent
- Mercury Arc
8. Stand features (they offer only portable)
9. System type
- Brightfield
- Portable
- Digital
- Teaching
- Specialty
- Inverted
- Darkfield
- Phase Contrast
- Polarizing
- Metallurgical
- Epi-Fluorescence
10. Stand class (they offer only pedestal)
11. Camera mount
- C-Mount
- Ocular Mount
As you can see, if you are beginner, for you is much easier to make decision when buying microscope on Amazon.com, logically, because it has much more commercial parameters for differentiating microscopes.
Also, if you exactly know what you are looking for, Amazon.com is again a perfect place for you. Microscope.com goes much deeper in classification and differences of microscopes, considering their parts and their characteristics. But, at the end, it must be taken in consideration that searching “compound light microscope” on Amazon.com gives about 6200 results and the same search on Microscope.com gives ten times less, or about 600 results.

Compound Light Microscope Parts
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Compound Light Microscope Objectives
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Compound light microscope Resolution
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Compound Light Microscope Lenses
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Uses of a compound light microscope
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How does a compound microscope work?
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Care and structure of the Compound Light Microscope
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Difference between simple and compound microscope
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Compound light microscope magnification
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Compound light microscope definition
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