I am thinking of Christmas gifts and would like to get a microscope and/or telescope for my budding scientist daughters (age 12 and 9). A couple of years ago I made the mistake of buying a combo set with both for about $50, and they were poor quality and essentially useless (in my defense it was branded as National Geographic, so I thought it might be OK). Then the next year I bought another microscope for around $70. Still not good. It is very hard to center the light under the specimen and even harder to bring it into focus.
I am willing to pay more, perhaps $200 for each if I am reasonably confident that they will actually work. Any suggestions?
Something like this stereo digital microscope looks good for a kid, I know I’d use it more than a old fashioned standard microscope. They have many other models of this type under $200, I’d look for one with more optical zoom. I’m thinking I may get one myself.
If you live near a University, look for used microscopes. People buy them when accepted into medical school, then change their mind or flunk out first year. I’ve seen decent $800 microscopes listed for $200 OBO.
As for telescopes under $200 for very young stargazers, I would look,at one of two types - themfirst would be a tabletop dobsonian beginner’s scope if all they want to do is look at stars. Most scopes in this price range have flimsy tripods that make them very difficult to use. A tabletop Dobsonian on something like a,picnic table will be much more stable. They are also small and easy for small people to use.
The other type would be a low power spotting scope. These have several advantages: The low power makes it easier to find planets and other nightnsky targets, the lower power makes a cheaper tripod usable, and as a spotting scooe it will come with an erecting eyepiece so it can also be used formbird watching or other nature activities.
I would normally recommend binoculars for beginners, but they are pretty unwieldy for a 9 year old.
Here’s an example of a tabletop Dobsonian:
And a good astronomical/spotting scope:
I’m not familiar with the brand, but it gets good reviews and has a lot of features including the ability to take astro photos with your phone.
For telescopes, you could go to CloudyNights Beginner’s Forum and ask there. Most cheap telescopes suffer from terrible tripods. Here’s a good thread.
Many people like the OneSky Newtonian, but it’s a bit more expensive. The Z130 has adherents, too.
Avoid the Celestron PowerSeeker 127EQ.
Most astronomy clubs do outreach nights–you could try different telescopes and see what’s out there, and what you like.
Sadly their “best microscope for beginners” is no longer available, which is weird because the article is like 5 weeks old, but I googled up several others in the article, and you can really get a lot of microscope for not all that much, such as this, or this.
For microscope.
Maybe take a look at ones that link to a computer or phone via USB. No actual looking into an eyepiece. I use them in my work sometimes. Mid range ones are quite good. For few dollars more, they can be very good now. I do find that they are fussy as to the lighting. More expensive ones deal with that better. Added bonus is the ability to take an instant picture or video of the specimen without additional camera complexities.
I don’t know microscopes, but for telescopes, the absolute most important thing is quality. The key word you want to look for is “diffraction-limited optics”, which means that the optics are as high a quality as is possible under the laws of physics. This is a surprisingly achievable goal, and everything made by Orion, Meade, or Celestron (the three biggest telescope companies) will meet that standard.
Alternately, it hasn’t been made for a decade, but you can still find used Astroscan telescopes around. It’s a high-quality but inexpensive scope, specifically designed for beginners: Not all that much capability, but what it does it does well, and very easy to use.
Absolutely do not buy any telescope that prominently features a magnification number on the front of the box. Those are, invariably, absolute trash, not even worth using as a toy. With a real telescope, you get whatever magnification you want, by swapping out the eyepiece.
Meade is now owned by Orion. Orion products use materials from GSO and Synta. Some other brands that use GSO products are Zhumell, Apertura, and Astro-Tech. Celestron is owned by Synta. Synta has its own line, Sky-Watcher.
Basically, it’s really easy to get magnification. It’s hard to get useful magnification. Bad magnification will turn a small fuzzy detailless blob into a big fuzzy detailless blob. Good magnification will let you see fine details that you couldn’t see before.
Most telescopes have a focal length–say, 1200mm. If you use a 25mm eyepiece, that gives you a magnification factor of 48X: 1200/25=48
If you change eyepieces to a 6mm eyepiece, you get a magnification factor of 200X: 1200/6=200.
For looking at wider expanses of the sky, or trying to find an object, start with, say, a 32mm eyepiece, so 37.5X. Then switch out eyepieces to see what the atmosphere will give you.
On the best nights, I’m able to use a 5mm eyepiece with my 1200 focal length scope and see Jupiter or Saturn 240X bigger:
But most nights the most I can get is 100X to 150X, so I use my 12mm or 9mm eyepieces.
Most telescopes will come with one or two eyepieces, but you will want to get more and better ones.
Semi-aside: It used to be possible to buy just the optics for a telescope, to make one yourself (many Dobsonians, in particular, were homemade). But I’m finding almost nothing along those lines online now. Am I just not looking in the right places, or is the homemade telescope a dead art?
It’s still possible. I built this 114mm f8 (900mm focal length) dobsonian reflector a year and a half ago:
I didn’t grind my mirror, but I found a mirror set on sale on eBay. I also bought the focuser. The tube is a concrete form. Plywood, hardware, and fittings from Menards.
Mirrors can be found from several sellers, but you’ve got to be careful. AgenaAstro has mirror sets, and there are others.
Hi again. I am bumping this thread as Christmas is coming up and I have decided to focus on getting a microscope this year.
I like the idea of a digital microscope, but note that most of the examples I see online talk about ‘macro’ specimens, and frequently on soldering electronics. Can you confirm that this type of microscope cannot be used to look at cells and micro-organisms?
