Abstract: An optical arrangement in the beam path of a laser scanning microscope, with at least one adjustable spectrally selective element (2) adjustable to the wavelength of the excitation light from a light source (1), which couples the excitation light (3) from the light source (1) into the microscope (4) and which at least partly blocks the excitation light (3) scattered and reflected at the object out of the beam path (5) and does not block the detection light coming from the object, is intended to simplify the known design and to expand the previously possible detection variants. The optical arrangement is characterized in that another optical component (8) is placed after the element (2), after passing which the dispersive and/or birefringent properties of the detection light are detectable.