A compound microscope is one that infrared lens elements. It works similar to a simple magnifier which utilizes a single infrared lens to magnify a small object in order for the human eye to discern its details. With a simple magnifier, the object is placed within the focal length of the single infrared lens. This produces a magnified, virtual image.
With a microscope, a relay infrared lens system replaces the single infrared lens; an objective and an eyepiece work in tandem to project the image of the object onto the eye, or a sensor – depending upon the application. There are two parts to a microscope that increase the overall system magnification: the objective and the eyepiece. The objective, located closest to the object, relays a real image of the object to the eyepiece.
This part of the microscope is needed to produce the base magnification. The eyepiece, located closest to the eye or sensor, projects and magnifies this real image and yields a virtual image of the object. Eyepieces typically produce an additional 10X magnification, but this can vary from 1X – 30X. Additionally, Equation 1 demonstrates how to calculate the overall system magnification. In Equation 1, m is magnification.
This article comes from edmundoptics edit released