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Optical magnification is the ratio between the apparent size of an object (or its size in an image) and its true size, and thus it is a dimensionless number. Optical magnification is sometimes referred to as "power" (for example "10× power"), although this can lead to confusion with optical power.
For example a 10x eyepiece magnification and a 100x objective lens magnification gives a total magnification of 1,000×. Modified environments such as the use of oil or ultraviolet light can increase the resolution and allow for resolved details at magnifications larger than 1,000x. [citation needed]
The ability of a lens to resolve detail is usually determined by the quality of the lens, but is ultimately limited by diffraction.Light coming from a point source in the object diffracts through the lens aperture such that it forms a diffraction pattern in the image, which has a central spot and surrounding bright rings, separated by dark nulls; this pattern is known as an Airy pattern, and ...
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723). The field of microscopy (optical microscopy) dates back to at least the 17th-century.Earlier microscopes, single lens magnifying glasses with limited magnification, date at least as far back as the wide spread use of lenses in eyeglasses in the 13th century [2] but more advanced compound microscopes first appeared in Europe around 1620 [3] [4] The ...
Both qualities are inversely correlated with resolution: the higher the resolution (i.e. the greater the distance at which two adjacent points can be distinguished as separate), the smaller the depth of field and working distance. Some stereo microscopes can deliver a useful magnification up to 100×, comparable to a 10× objective and 10× ...
Angular resolution describes the ability of any image-forming device such as an optical or radio telescope, a microscope, a camera, or an eye, to distinguish small details of an object, thereby making it a major determinant of image resolution.
Oil immersion objectives are used only at very large magnifications that require high resolving power. Objectives with high power magnification have short focal lengths, facilitating the use of oil. The oil is applied to the specimen (conventional microscope), and the stage is raised, immersing the objective in oil.
Numerical aperture is commonly used in microscopy to describe the acceptance cone of an objective (and hence its light-gathering ability and resolution), and in fiber optics, in which it describes the range of angles within which light that is incident on the fiber will be transmitted along it.