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If you don't need the scope to be handheld, you might consider the 
Scalar Dial-A-Scope available through School Technology Resources.

http://www.schooltr.com/das.htm

We use one in our Zoom Station, and it has performed well over the 
past two years.  We got it specifically because we needed something 
that could be mounted permanently and that had some amount of 
flexibility in magnification (we set the magnification permanently 
after we got the exhibit finalized).

The visitors now use it with a custom focusing mechanism (we built a 
mount with nice big knobs that move the entire microscope up and down 
a few millimeters) and a custom sample stage (joystick moves the 
samples a couple centimeters in x and y), so I can't vouch for how 
the microscope's own controls would hold up.

Its main drawbacks are that it's pricey and that its design doesn't 
exactly scream "microscope" -- in our heart of hearts, we would've 
wished for something that actually looked like a microscope (instead 
of like a quart milk container).


>Hello,
>
>Could anyone suggest video microscopes suitable for an unstaffed exhibit?
>We don't need much zoom (~50x).
>
>Thanks!
>Eric
>
>*****************************************
>Eric Yuan
>Exhibit Developer
>Children's Museum of Portsmouth (NH)
>(603) 436-3853
>*****************************************

-- 
~~

Allan Ayres
Exhibit Developer
Lawrence Hall of Science
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-5200
[log in to unmask]
510-642-1254

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