Microscope or Telescope?

[jesus]

I am thinking of buying one or the other but i haven't decided yet. I've never had much experience with either so i was wondering if someone could tell me how much use i could get out of a microscope?

 

A telescope is fairly self explanitory and astronomy does interest me, and apart from looking at hair and skin cells i'm not sure how much use i would get out of a microscope, so is there much more i could use it for in terms of learning for myself and seeing some crazy things?

[Leader Bee]

I am thinking of buying one or the other but i haven't decided yet. I've never had much experience with either so i was wondering if someone could tell me how much use i could get out of a microscope?

 

A telescope is fairly self explanitory and astronomy does interest me, and apart from looking at hair and skin cells i'm not sure how much use i would get out of a microscope, so is there much more i could use it for in terms of learning for myself and seeing some crazy things?

 

 

Unless you really know what you're doing with a telescope and where to point it you're not going to see much more than the moon (It's the biggest,brightest object in the night sky and pretty easy to point at)

 

A microscope on the other hand is a lot easier to focus, you wont have haze from the atmosphere blurring your view and theres loads of interesting stuff to look at than just hair and skin cells - Bugs, plants, plastics, ice, loads of stuff.

 

I'm not saying that a telescope isn't interesting but you will first of all need a little knowledge of the constellations to find anything. Then of course there's the earths rotation and everythings moving out there AND millions of miles away.

 

I have a 6" reflector with an alt-azimuth stand and you'd think pointing it in the sky would yields loads of cool stuff like comets and planets and stars but i really find it difficult to point it at something even as big as jupiter. I've yet to see if I can check out the ISS with it, that shows up pretty often overhead but i reckon it will still be incredibly difficult to track considering the speed.

 

I'd go for the microscope

[insane_alien]

there isn't anything saying you can have both so it is more of a mtter of what you get first.

 

you say astronomy interests you so that suggest you'd get more enjoyment out of it.

[John Cuthber]

There's another factor. If you live in a city or big town and don't have a car to drive out into the country then you can pretty much forget the telescope. I live in a city and light polution blots out pretty much anything except the moon.

[OliviaMcQ]

In a perfect world, both. BUT, a microscope is a little more accessible if you are a complete beginner when it comes to astronomy.

 

You can look at lots of different things with a microscope, way more than skin and hair cells. You can take samples from the dumpster and see what shows up, look at plant and food samples, skin cells from pets, the list goes on...

 

Hmph. Now I want a microscope.

[LadyEwok88]

Optics are totally my thing. I actually have both, a digital microscope and a 90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain.

 

I started with a microscope because I live in a big city as well. Last week my dad, who is a biology teacher got a MicroEye which is basically a handheld microscope that you hook into your computer. Now I want one!

It's super detailed and fun to look at any thing from dollar bills to different pieces of cloth. I like it cause it's a microscope with more freedom since it doesn't have a stage.

 

I'd totally recommend a microscope since you won't have weather or time constrictions to get you started. Some things I like to do are pairing it with petri dish experiments and making my own slides. It's always cool to take a solid item and add a liquid and watch reactions happen live.

 

For Christmas I got a GE-5 Digital Microscope from xUmp and they were cool enough to start carrying more lenses and accessories because I called them. That's another thing with microscopes, you can get accessories and hook it into your computer much easier than a telescope. My background is actually a view of a piece of a spring flower from my GE-5.

 

Regardless, both are super awesome toys to have around!

[hemantc007]

hey..... can some one tell me , what type of telescope is the telescope at hawaii,i mean to say that is it,

Reflector telescopes or Refractor telescopesor any other type ,,, give me info in detail ...........and also the how it is made . i want to cross chech my concept with it........

 

plzzzz.........