Assignment Task: Focusing Your Specimens:
1. Plug your microscope into the power supply and switch on the illuminator.
2. Take the prepared slide labeled SMOOTH MUSCLE and place it onto the mechanical stage. At each power objective, you will draw what you see in the microscope in the diagrams below.
3. Always start with the stage as low as possible and using scanning objective (4x). Odds are, you will be able to see something on this setting (sometimes it's only a color). Use the coarse knob to focus: the image may be small at this magnification, but you won't be able to find it on the higher powers without this first step. Move the mechanical stage until your focused image is also centered.
4. Once you've focused using the scanning objective, switch to the low power objective (10x). Use the coarse knob to refocus and move the mechanical stage to re-center your image. Again, if you haven't focused on this level, you will not be able to move to the next level.
5. Now switch to the high-power objective (40x). At this point, ONLY use the fine adjustment knob to focus specimens. 6. If the specimen is too light or too dark