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Instrument Care

Lenses

  • Please take great care in using the objectives. They are very expensive. Coverslips must be used with all objectives. The only exception is the 25X objective, which can be used with water and glycerin with or without a coverslip. When using oil with the 25X objective, you must use a coverslip. You must have special training to use this objective. If an objective you would like to use is not mounted on the microscope, you must ask a staff member to mount it. Take great care that the dry and water lenses do not come in contact with oil. If they do, clean them immediately and contact a staff member immediately. After your session is finished, wipe all excess oil from the lens with lens paper. Do not do any other cleaning without staff present.

Lasers usage

  • Laser may take up to one-hour warm-up time before use in order to assure stable laser power. The 405 laser in particular will appear to flick off and on during scanning. We have seen this in the first 45 minutes of operation. If you see this at other times please let us know immediately. Main system switch must not be turned off until the system has been given a five-minute cool down time.

Mercury Lamp Use

  • Once the mercury lamp has been turned on, it must remain on at least 30 minutes. Once it has been turned off, it must remain off at least 30 minutes. The mercury lamp is on another circuit from the system, so you may turn on the mercury lamp at any time.

CD/DVD Burning

  • You must supply your own CDs and DVDs.

Data Backup

  • You are responsible for backing up your data. Data generated on the LSM 510 System will be periodically deleted from the system's hard drive. Do not expect more than a month of storage on the system. The data on the instrument itself is not backed up. If you do not save your images by transferring them to the CGRB server or burning them onto a CD or DVD before you leave your session, data may be lost. The data is periodically purged to create space for newer fles. We will give you notice when we will be purging older files. We usually keep data for at least 3 months.

USB ports

  • NEVER plug anything into the USB ports or any other port on the confocal system!! It will completely mess up the entire system!!!