My background is astronomy, but my kids are interested in biology and I’m not familiar with what magnifications are optimal for looking at stuff they’d be looking in, say, college biology courses (since we’re going to be doing online classes until this pandemic is over).
Can someone tell me what lens magnification(s) I should be buying? The Basic set seems to be 4x, 10x, 40x, and 100x.
Less than 4x is not really a microscope, and you cannot get higher than 100x. The most useful are 10x and 40x for most things. 100x are usually designed to use immersion oil, unless you get a metallurgical lens - which are usually expensive.
There is a resolution/field of view/magnification document in the handbook