The present invention refers to an apparatus and a method for investigating an object with a scanning particle microscope and at least one scanning probe microscope with a probe, wherein the scanning particle microscope and the at least one scanning probe microscope are spaced with respect to each other in a common vacuum chamber so that a distance between the optical axis of the scanning particle microscope and the measuring point of the scanning probe microscope in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis of the scanning particle microscope is larger than the maximum field of view of both the scanning probe microscope and the scanning particle microscope, wherein the method comprises the step of determining the distance between the measuring point of the scanning probe microscope and the optical axis of the scanning particle microscope.