title: Proper alignment and adjustment of the light microscope.
abstract: The light microscope is a basic tool for the cell biologist, 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.
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Edward D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Salmon
authors.forename: Julie C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Canman
mesh_terms: D008027:Light; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods