This item is an Olympus vertical illuminator for use with epi-fluorescence techniques. The illuminator is interposed between the viewing tube and the upper limb of the microscope frame and supported by a clamping yoke near the back of the illumination tube. This illuminator will fit the BH series of microscopes including the BHA, BHB, BHC, and BHM. I believe it will also fit the later BH-2 series, however it is not an infinity corrected system. It must be used with the 160mm tube length objectives.

The illuminator has several special provisions for work in fluorescence. Starting at the rear of the illuminator, there is a substantial fluted condenser assembly that includes a built-in BG-38 suppression filter (absorbs infra-red for added heat protection, and near UV for suppression of auto-fluorescence). Immediately in front of this assembly is a dark slide to prevent quenching of the sample.

In front of the clamping support is the receptacle for up to three exciter filters in 32.5mm diameter cells. A cover may be rotated to secure the filters in place and to prevent stray excitation light from disturbing observations. In front of the filter carrier are the conventional graduated adjustable aperture and field diaphragms (both precentered at the factory).

The main body of the illuminator has two ports in addition to the mounting flanges for the microscope frame and viewing tube. The large cylindrical side port allows one to exchange various holders with dichroic beam-splitting filters (described below) and the slot facing the front is for various barrier filters in sliders.

The illuminator, because of the increased optical path, has a magnification factor of 1.2x. The system is in near perfect condition. The tan hammertone finish matches that of the BH series of stands.

This item does NOT include any of the fluorescence modules. Without a dichroic module, the illuminator will not function (no beamsplitter). The exciter filters have already been described. The dichroic assembly that fits the side port usually includes both a dichroic beam splitter and a matching wavelength barrier filter. It is keyed for proper orientation. These assemblies are simply marked with a letter instead of the actual wavelengths of the components (an annoying convention shared with several manufacturers). The independent barrier filters are mounted in sliders that are marked with the longpass wavelength. Olympus adds a prefix letter in front of the wavelength that is short for the perceived color of the filter (such as R for red, O for orange, Y for yellow, etc). We are offering a second illuminator identical to this but equipped with a complete set of FITC filters should that be of interest…
***MPN
***OEM Olympus
***SKU*** 12268