Oil and the Condenser; another question

[GerryR]

Just curious about the use of oil on the condenser. I have an AO Sixty Reference Manual, which goes through the details of how to use the 100x oil objective, and it does not include anything about putting oil on the condenser and specifically shows only adding oil to the cover slip. Everything I read states to use oil above and below the slide. Not knowing whether oil would damage the condenser on this microscope, I hesitate to go that route. How much difference in the image is there with and without oil on the condenser?? Thanks for any input.

[Hobbyst46]

Just curious about the use of oil on the condenser. I have an AO Sixty Reference Manual, which goes through the details of how to use the 100x oil objective, and it does not include anything about putting oil on the condenser and specifically shows only adding oil to the cover slip. Everything I read states to use oil above and below the slide. Not knowing whether oil would damage the condenser on this microscope, I hesitate to go that route. How much difference in the image is there with and without oil on the condenser?? Thanks for any input.

If the NA of the condenser is below 1.0, it is not designed for oiling. A condenser with an NA of 1 or higher should be oiled to the bottom of the slide to achieve maximum resolution; however, in parctice, the gain in resolution is not always worth the mess...

[DrPhoxinus]

And for non critical work, glycerin can be substituted for oil