# What gift would be better for a child, microscope or telescope?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-gift-would-be-better-for-a-child-microscope-or-telescope/772992>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 25, 2016, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-gift-would-be-better-for-a-child-microscope-or-telescope/772992 "2016-11-25T21:29:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![SigMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-gift-would-be-better-for-a-child-microscope-or-telescope/772992/41 "2017-01-02T13:03:29Z")

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> [@Urbanredneck](#):
>
> Microscope.
> 
> Thing is with telescopes, unless you live out in the country the lights of your city will prevent them from seeing much more than the moon at night. Just go outside tonight and look up and see how many stars you can see.

and see UFOs. 🆒

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**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-gift-would-be-better-for-a-child-microscope-or-telescope/772992/42 "2017-01-02T23:03:38Z")

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As a child, I got great value from a microscope as a rainy day toy. There were always amazing things around the house to look at. When I later got a telescope, I looked at the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn, and then didn’t really have much more use for the thing.

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**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-gift-would-be-better-for-a-child-microscope-or-telescope/772992/43 "2017-01-02T23:44:21Z")

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> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#):
>
> Just to keep you updated, turns out he loves the microscope and spent a bit of Christmas looking for leaves to examine under it, so cheers guys - mission accomplished!

Cool. I went through this exact question myself this year and got my daughter the microscope. She loves it.

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