Compund light microscopes have a more powerful magnification and a more complex structure and body. These are more useful when somebody desires o observe smaller things such as cells. These microscopes though, are not powefull to see organelles and things smaller than cells.
Dissecting microscopes don't have a powerful magnification and have a very simple structure and body, not even having built-in lights, since it uses the light in the exterior, that reflects on the object that is being seen. These are used mostly on entomology (study of insects, to not say much) where you only need to see the insects body parts in detail, not requiring a powerful magnification.
Hope it helped,
BioTeacher101
