Dual viewing teaching microscope with universal reticle projection unit

Claim 1

A dual-viewing teaching microscope comprising a body tube having an objective at its lower end and a housing at its upper end, a first eyepiece mounted at the upper end of the housing in alignment with said body tube and a second eyepiece mounted on a side portion of the housing in upwardly angled relationship to said body tube, a partially silvered mirror mounted in said housing in angled relationship to said body tube and said first eyepiece, whereby a portion of the converging imaging beam from said objective is transmitted through said partially silvered mirror to the image plane of said first eyepiece and the remaining portion is reflected from the lower surface of the partially silvered mirror to the image plane of said second eyepiece, a reticle pointer handle projecting from the side of said housing opposite said second eyepiece, said pointer handle comprising a hollow tubular member having a ball-shaped enlargement at its inner end seated in socket means within said housing for universal movement, a lamp mounted at the outer end of said tubular member, a reticle plate mounted in the tubular member between said lamp and said ball-shaped enlargement and in outwardly spaced relationship to the center of said ball shaped enlargement, said reticle plate having a small light transmitting central aperture in the form of a direcTional pointer, and a pair of mirrors and a projection lens mounted in the housing between the inner end of said hollow tubular member and said partially silvered mirror to form a converging reticle imaging beam directed at the upper surface of said partially silvered mirror for partial reflection and transmission, respectively, to the image planes of said first and second eyepieces, whereby manual shifting and rotation of the projecting portion of said reticle pointer handle enables the directional pointer reticle image to be viewed at any desired point and orientation in the image field of both eyepieces.