Review of the Celestron Microscope Kit

Hello again Picstop followers Finlow here. After my review of the Celestron Firstscope that I did for Picstop they have asked me to check out another product the Celestron Microscope Kit.  This time however instead of reviewing another telescope and looking out to the heavens they have gone totally to the other end of the scope "no pun intended", and asked me to look at the world of the tiny. Review of the Celestron Microscope Kit

Starter Microscope kit
The Celestron Microscope kit, a starter Microscope kit designed for ease of use and tough in construction. I am 60 years of age and the last time it looked into a microscope was in the schools science lab when I was a kid. All that I can remember about this encounter was the teacher strongly reminding us all that we were handling a piece of very expensive precision piece of  scientific equipment and that we would die a painful death if we damaged it in anyway. I do remember that the only thing I looked at was a human hair which looked like a great oak tree that had been attacked by a woodsman with a axe. This experience was for me traumatic and never looked at or down a microscope since.

600x Power & Interchangeable Lenses
When the box arrived, just like the telescope it was in a strong colourful box and straight away I knew what was in it and what I should expect to find in it. The thing that hit me first was the claim of its power. 600x power that to me was incredible, plus it had interchangeable lenses just like the scope I reviewed. On opening the box It was just like the telescope all securely packed and simple enough to assemble. Once again the instructions were simple and easy to follow. The microscope it's self was light and made of modern tough plastics and only weighed 22 oz's, but once sat on a flat service it was firm and stable. It looked like an expensive piece of equipment and it took me a little while to get over my nerves of handling it. On reading the manual I was impressed to see it had biological power from 40 to 600x power. A 10x to 20x zoom eye piece with quality optics and a 4x, 15x and 30x objective lenses with again high quality optics.

The crossover from telescope to microscope meant I understood a little about lenses but modern lens production means we can have a range of powerful lenses for all types of work. The Celestron Microscope needs 2 types of batteries and do not come with the kit a bit frustrating if your wanting to get into the micro world straight away.

Great Microscope Starter Kit
Celestron recommend that this scope has been designed for 13 year old's and above. Younger children could still use it but as some of the glass slides and samples are  fiddly to put together and little fingers may have problems. The Celestron Microscope kit has everything you would need to start probing around the microscopic world. At first I had a problem in trying to think what I could look at but Celestron have thought of that and included some example specimens to start with. Once you get started all you seem to end up doing is looking for and finding ideas to look at. Unlike the telescope this device is not weather dependent and most things can be experimented on. One warning however if you have a nervous dispossession some of the things especially of the insect world are not scary in micro mode but zoom in 500 times and you enter a world of monsters and aliens, thank God they are as small as they are.

Product Review by Finlow