Let's face it, optics is a fascinating field, but it can bore you to death. My purpose in writing these articles is to show that there are simple, intuitive ways to look at microscopes that can illuminate rather than bore. I have been an optical engineer for many years and have observed many unique ways of looking at optical instruments. I hope that I can share my enthusiasm and insight for light and its manipulation and give some insights that microscopisis may have missed. The microscope is particularly interesting because the glass lenses often do more than one job at the same time. Most of the principles of optical microscopy are directly transferable to electron microscopy, and I will point out specific cases as I go along.