CENTER MASKING ILLUMINATION SYSTEM AND METHOD CENTER MASKING ILLUMINATION SYSTEM AND METHOD

摘要

Methods and apparatus for centering masking a condenser lens of a transmitted light microscope to simultaneously maximize resolution, contrast and depth of field utilizing at a conjugate plane of the aperture plane where an image of the rear aperture of the condenser lens has been created, a plurality of light sources (64) to illuminate two or more of the faces (42, 43, 44, 46) of a multi-face mirror (41) in the shape of a pyramid which moves relative to the light sources to vary the amount of center masking continuously over a range including zero while directing multiple oblique beams of light onto the objective lens.