Purpose: The metallurgical microscope allows studying the structure of the material, determining the size of the grain, non-metallic inclusions, various defects, measuring the thickness of diffusion layers on the surface of the material in reflected light with magnifications from 25 … 50 to 1000 … 2500 times. Opaque polished sections serve as samples. Research is carried out using all modern contrasting methods: light, dark field, DIC, polarization contrast, fluorescence (including a unique development of Zeiss – circular differential interference contrast C-DIC)