Observation apparatus and observation method

摘要

An observation apparatus includes an incident-light illumination optical system, a transmitting illumination optical system, an imaging unit (18), an input device (56), a storage unit (58), an imaging controller (51), a microscope controller (52), and an imaging information management unit (54). The imaging information management unit (54) compares an area position, of an imaging area of the imaging unit (18), indicated by position information input from the input device (56) with an area position stored in the storage unit (58) to determine whether the area position indicated by the position information is stored in the storage unit (58). When the area position is not stored in the storage unit (58), the imaging controller (51) controls the imaging unit (18) to image the specimen (S) and to generate an observation image, and stores the observation image in the storage unit (58). The microscope controller (52) controls one of the optical systems to illuminate the specimen (S) only during an imaging period, when the imaging unit (18) images the specimen (S).