A light source (like an LED bulb or mirror) shines light upward through a condenser. This concentrates the light into a focused beam that passes through a thin, transparent specimen mounted on a glass slide.Objective Lens: The light travels through the specimen and enters the objective lens, which is positioned closest to the object being viewed. This curved glass lens bends the light waves, creating a magnified, upside-down, and "real" image inside the microscope tube.