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.