Fig. 8.2 — Homemade inverted microscope

Construction: (a) the base is firmly fixed to the optical table; (b) a 45^◦ mirror M₁ is fixed on the base and a second stage is built; (c) the vertical translation stage (inset) for the objective is fixed; (d) a manual translation stage (lower inset) for rough alignment and a piezoelectric automatised translation stage (upper inset) for fine adjustment of the sample are fixed on the second stage; (e) the lateral translation stage (inset) for the condenser is fixed; (f) the objective (OBJ; lower right inset) and the condenser (C; upper right inset) are placed on the respective stages, a calibration glass slide is placed on the sample holder and the illumination LED lamp is fixed on the third level (lower left inset: image of the sample on a screen placed on the optical table); (g) the image is focused on a camera using lens L₁ and mirrors M₁, M₂ and M₃. (h) Corresponding schematic of the microscope.