How To Use a Microscope?

1.       Carry the microscope with two hands. The left hand is under the microscope (base) and the right hand is in the arm of microscope stand 
2.             Put the microscope on the table
3.       Plug on the microscope 
4.        Put the slide of specimen (object) at the stage. You can use the specimen holder and two knurled locking screws for securing specimen holder to stage.  
5.         Use the course focus knob to refocus. Again, if you haven't focused on this level, you will not be able to move to the next level.  
6.          Now switch to High Power. (If you have a thick slide, or a slide without a cover, do NOT use the high power objective). At this point, ONLY use the Fine Adjustment Knob to focus specimens.  
7.          If the specimen is too light or too dark, try adjusting the diaphragm. 
8.          If you see a line in your viewing field, try twisting the eyepiece, the line should move. That's because its a pointer, and is useful for pointing out things to your lab partner or teacher. 

Cleanup

1.       Clean the lens with xylol

2.       Store microscopes with the scanning objective in place.

3.       Cover the microscopes.

4.       Wash slides in the sinks and dry them, placing them back in the slide boxes to be used later.

Troubleshooting

Occasionally you may have trouble with working your microscope. Here are some common problems and solutions. 

1.       Image is too dark!

            Adjust the diaphragm, make sure your light is on.

2.       There's a spot in my viewing field, even when I move the slide the spot stays in the same place!

Your lens is dirty. Use lens paper, and only lens paper to carefully clean the objective and ocular lens. The ocular lens can be removed to clean the inside.

3.        I can't see anything under high power!

Remember the steps, if you can't focus under scanning and then low power, you won't be able to focus anything under high power.