2. When carrying the microscope, put your hand under the plastic cover and hold onto the arm firmly. Hold the entire scope level, sideways, and against your chest. Anyone carrying a scope has the "right-of-way". Never carry the microscope by the cover.

3. At your station, uncover the scope and turn it so that the nameplate faces you. Revolve the eyepiece apparatus so that it, too, faces you. All controls are up front except for the fine and coarse adjustments. Be certain the scope is OFF before you plug it in, then plug it in and turn the light on full.

4. Check to see that the filter holder is fully in or fully out. Otherwise, you will not be able to use the scope. Filters only serve to lessen eyestrain over long periods.

5. Lenses may only be cleaned with lens paper. Paper towels are okay for slides.

6. Position the revolving nose cone so that the smallest magnification objective lens clicks into place over the opening in the stage or platform below it. The total magnification of your scope is the product of the objective lens magnification and the magnification of the eyepiece lens.

7. Place a slide horizontally into the stage clip of the platform. If there is printing on the slide it should be placed so that you can read it. Center the SPECIMEN over the light coming through the opening in the platform. At low power, you can safely focus the specimen using the coarse adjustment. (At higher powers, be careful not to run the slide into the lens!)

8. Focus the specimen with your right eye. The left eye is focused by turning the base of the left eyepiece. Eyepieces move apart or closer together for convenience. Center the specimen.

9. Close the iris diaphragm, leaving only a spot of light (probably with blurred outline). Use the condenser focusing knob to sharpen the outline and then go slightly out of focus until you get a faint blue halo. A red halo is not desired.

10. Open the iris diaphragm only enough so that the light completely fills the viewing area as you look into the scope. Opening this more reduces the quality of your image.

11. To go to a higher power, center the part of your specimen that interests you and then revolve the nose cone carefully to the next higher power. You will need to re-focus using the fine adjustment.

12. In our class, we will not use the oil immersion or 1000x. If you try this anyway you may break the slide or get everything greasy. One costs you money, the other is a mess for you to clean up.

Some Advice: Don't put a group of slides on a piece of paper at your station. Someone may try to take the sheet and pull all of the slides onto the floor. This is a major setback for the checkbook.