Construction : A compound microscope consists of two convex lenses. The lens with the shorter focal length is placed near the object, and is called as ‘objective lens’ or ‘objective piece’. The lens with larger focal length and larger aperture placed near the observer’s eye is called as ‘eye lens’ or ‘eye piece’. Both the lenses are fixed in a narrow tube with adjustable provision.
Working : The object (AB) is placed at a distance slightly greater than the focal length of objective lens (u > F0). A real, inverted and magnified image (A’B’) is formed at the other side of the objective lens. This image behaves as the object for the eye lens. The position of the eye lens is adjusted in such a way, that the image (B’B’) falls within the principal focus of the eye piece. This eye piece forms a virtual, enlarged and erect image (A”B”) on the same side of the object.
Compound microscope has 50 to 200 times more magnification power than simple microscope.
