Proper Alignment and Adjustment of the Light Microscope

The light microscope is a basic tool for biologists, who should have a thorough understanding of how it works, how it should be aligned for different applications (e.g., brightfield, phase‐contrast, differential interference contrast, and fluorescence epi‐illumination), and how it should be maintained as required to obtain maximum image‐forming capacity and resolution. The principles of microscopy and step‐by‐step alignment and adjustment procedures are described in this unit.