A quantitative fluorescence image and appropriate brightness is acquired and observed. Provided is a fluorescence observation apparatus including: an illumination section that includes a light source for irradiating an observation target region with illumination light and excitation light a fluorescence image acquisition section that acquires a fluorescence image from fluorescence produced in the observation target region a white-light image acquisition section that acquires a reference image from return light returning from the observation target region an exposure-time adjustment unit that adjusts the exposure time based on the luminance value of the reference image a diaphragm control section and a semiconductor laser control section that control the intensity of the illumination light and that of the excitation light based on the exposure time a first normalization section that normalizes the luminance of the reference image and the fluorescence image by the exposure time a second normalization section that normalizes the luminance of the reference image and the fluorescence image by the light intensity and an image correction section that corrects the fluorescence image by the reference image, by using at least one of the normalized reference image or fluorescence image.
