An optical microscope, often just called a light microscope, uses a system of lenses to magnify images. In an optical microscope, light comes from a light source (A) and then travels through a condenser lens (B), which focuses light onto the object C. Once light passes through the object under study, light goes through a system of lenses referred to as the objective (D). The objective serves to magnify the image before it reaches the eyepiece (E) which is where the image can be viewed from by the observer’s eye.

Figure 1. Optical Microscope diagram.

In a microscope such as this, angular magnification is commonly measured. Angular magnification measures the angular space that the object takes in the eye of the observer. A microscope acts to increase this angular space such that the object can appear much larger. In the microscope, angular magnification is measured as

Where MA is the angular magnification, M₀ is the magnification of the objective, and M_e is the magnification of the eyepiece. The magnification of the objective is given as d/f_o where d is the distance from the start of the objective to the eyepiece.
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