The present invention relates to a microscope of which visibility, controllability and operability can be improved. In the microscope, an optical path and optical path of an image forming system are set so as to be perpendicular to each other when viewed from the top. In other words, in this microscope, there exists an ocular optical system that guides light, which propagates the optical path to optical path of the image forming system, to a user. The optical path is formed in a direction perpendicular to a direction of the light from a sample emitted from the ocular optical system to the user. The present invention can be applied to an inverted microscope.