One of the things I used to enjoy doing when I was teaching science and I had a spare moment (very rare) was to grab a dissecting (stereoscope) microscope and look at anything and everything with it. Dissecting microscopes provide an upright and correct right-to-left image and are relatively low powered compared to conventional microscopes. On the other hand, no need to make a slide when observing with one of these scopes. Just stick any object at hand on the tray and start observing!
It's amazing how different things look at even a modest 20-40x magnification. Rocks, twigs, plant parts, insects, soil, cloth, newsprint, jewelry, circuit boards, computer chips, small machine parts all take on a different personality when magnified. You haven't really seen the fangs on a spider until you've seen them at 40x!
Lately, I've been thinking of starting a new hobby - studying and collecting rocks and minerals. Not that I need an excuse for adding another instrument to my optical collection, but I do think the
LOMO SF-100T would be a great choice for this hobby. With the SF-100, I can magnify all the way up to an amazing 100x. Best of all, I can even take pictures of all those amazing things.
Now all I have to do is get that spider to smile.