Yes and no.
It is not possible to look at an individual atom with an optical microscope. The reason for this, surprisingly enough, is that photons are too big (in terms of wavelength) and atoms are too small. This might be surprising. Nevertheless, the wavelengths of photons to which the human eye is sensitive are 4000 to 7000 Angstroms, but the size of an atom is 1 to 7 Angstroms (roughly).
There are special microscopes that use electrons, instead of photons, to gather information. A tunnelling electron microscope is such a device. But they are not what most people imagine when they hear the word "microscope."
When viewed under a microscope, an atom appears as a tiny, spherical structure with a dense nucleus at the center, surrounded by even smaller particles called electrons orbiting around it.
The electron cloud surrounding the nucleus of an atom is detected by an STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscope). This technique measures the tunneling current between the tip of the microscope and the atomic surface, allowing visualization of the electron distribution.
The Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) was invented in 1981 and is capable of generating atomic-scale images of surfaces. It works by moving a fine-tipped probe over a surface and detecting the flow of electrons between the probe and the atoms, allowing for visualization of individual atoms.
You cannot see an atom visually with a microscope. They're smaller (quite a bit smaller, actually) than visual light waves. The instrument that's used to "see" atoms is called a scanning tunneling microscope, but it doesn't use visible light, it uses electrical potentials and the pictures are generated by computer processing of the data.
The arrow is pointing to the eyepiece of the microscope, where you look through to observe the specimen being magnified.
The atomic force microscope is an instrument.
No device can give the complete structure of an atom but you can get a minute idea about the look of an atom using an Electron Microscope!
Scanning tunneling electron microscope
with an electron microscope
When viewed under a microscope, an atom appears as a tiny, spherical structure with a dense nucleus at the center, surrounded by even smaller particles called electrons orbiting around it.
The microscope aids the scientist by making it possible for them to see cells, get a closer look at small objects, and examining specimens
Not unless your highschool has an electron microscope
Scientists see a blur when they look at an atom under a microscope because the size of atoms is on the scale of a few tenths of a nanometer, which is smaller than the wavelength of visible light. This means that the light waves cannot resolve the details of the atom's structure, leading to a blurred image.
With a normal light microscope, you can't look directly at your finger. It's just too thick for light from underneath to pass through, to reach the microscope lenses. It might be possible to scrape off thin layers of dead skin and put them on a slide to view through a microscope, though.
The part of the microscope that you look into is called the eyepiece.
You Need a really powerful Microscope
Scientists get the thinnest possible sample to look at in a microscope in order to reduce light scattering and distortion, which can result in clearer images with higher resolution. Thinner samples also allow for better visualization of fine details and structures within the specimen.