Student Microscope

By Vandana Banerjee

The student life is perhaps the best time to introduce young minds to the best of the knowledge so as to leave an impression that would last a life time. It is at this age that most of the seeds of inquisition and zeal for knowledge and discovery are laid. Therefore it is of utmost importance that they get introduced to the best instruments of science that helps this process. The student microscope is one such instrument that helps in laying the above mentioned foundation amongst the kids of the middle school onwards. The modern world has provided the students with many designs and models of the biologist's best friend.

Generally student microscope has a few characteristics that are unique to it and most manufacturers keep it in mind while making their brand. They are usually light weighted and relatively inexpensive. In addition to this the designs are user friendly, i.e. they are easy to handle and use and a system and mechanics that is designed to survive vigorous usage and rough handling. Some of the most common of these microscopes have safety features to prevent tampering like eye piece and stage clips that are locked on, a focus movement that is both coarse and fine and a slip clutch to prevent over focusing and also a focus top that is adjustable so as to prevent any kind of damage to the objective lens and the glass micro-slides.

The optics used in the student microscope is generally a high quality DIN standard one. More often than not these microscopes have three or at least a couple of objectives with 40x and 10x lenses. So on an average the magnification power of these microscopes range between 100x to 400x. However with the addition of the third objective of 100x in some the power increases to 1000x. These are generally used by students studying in higher standards. The lighting feature used in a student microscope completely depends on the cost of the instruments. The inexpensive ones have tungsten bulbs whereas the slightly expensive instruments use the fluorescent lights and in some case the halogen lamps.

Although the prices of different kinds of microscopes differ a lot but in the case of a student microscope a higher price tag does not ensure the availability of everything that a kid wants. As a matter of fact while searching for an instrument in this segment if one has knowledge about the microscope they can find a good quality instrument with all the desired features at a very economical price. Certain features have to be looked into while purchasing a student microscope like the focus ability. It should have both the fine as well as coarse focus viewing so as to provide the kid with a clear view of every sample. Apart from this the magnification should be at least of a power of 400x and would be best if it is 1000x as this is the sole purpose of a microscope and it should serve it best.

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