Patent attributes
An optical apparatus minimizes autofluorescence and stray light as well as leakage of excitation light and efficiently utilizes illuminating light from a fluorescence illumination optical system to allow observation of a bright fluorescence image. An observation apparatus has an objective, an observation optical system unit including a variable magnification optical system, and an imaging optical system unit including an imaging lens and an eyepiece. A fluorescence illumination apparatus, which is provided separately, is removably attached to the observation apparatus. The fluorescence illumination apparatus has a light source, a collector lens unit, and a reflecting member placed between the objective and the observation optical system unit at a position displaced from the optical axis of the objective to make light from the light source incident on the objective. An excitation filter is provided between the light source and the reflecting member. An optical member for selectively transmitting fluorescent light emitted from a sample is placed between the objective and the observation optical system unit.
