Facility Policies and User Guidelines
Training
Before you can use the confocal microscope, you are required to undergo training with the Microscopy Director. Until you can demonstrate that you can run the equipment on your own without risk of damaging it, you will only be able to use it with supervision from either Dr Bannigan or another fully-trained user.
Please fill out a registration form
and bring it to your first training session
Booking and Use of the Equipment
Please use the online booking system to reserve time on the confocal. For image processing, you can use the free EZ-C1-Viewer software on another computer. You can install it on your own computer (download) or use one of the computers in the microscopy facility. We also have a Viewer version of the Elements software. To use it, you may sign out the Dongle, or use it in the microscopy facility.
Please be considerate of other people's needs. If the confocal is extremely busy, don't book it ahead for days on end. If the machine becomes very heavily used in the future, some booking restrictions may be introduced. For now, just be thoughtful.
When using the equipment, please treat it with the utmost care. Objective lenses are very delicate and expensive. On an inverted microscope, such as the Nikon, they are also prone to damage by immersion oil. Please do not use excessive quantities of oil. It can run down the edges and enter the lens. If this happens, the objective will be out of commission for some weeks while it is sent away for a very expensive cleaning.
When using the equipment, please also be considerate of the next user. Throw trash in the trash can, wipe up oil or other spills and leave the area as you would expect to find it. Clean lenses thoroughly and fill in the log book before leaving the microscope.
Please check the bookings page before you finish your session to check if there is someone booked after you. If someone is due to start within an hour of you finishing, you may leave the machine on.
If you cancel a booking less than 1 hour before you were due to start, please check that the machine is not left on for you by contacting either the person booked on before you (microscope room phone: 586-5116) or Dr Bannigan (586-4521). If you cannot get in touch with anyone, it is your responsibility to go downstairs and check that the system has not been left on for you.
Saving and storing data
When collecting data, your files from a session will be put in a folder. It is strongly recommended that you take good notes while imaging and name the folders by date. You will thank yourself later when you have thousands of folders of the same thing and you are trying to find one particular experiment. To make life easier, put the date in this format: [yymmdd] - that way they will always be arranged in chronological order.
The images you collect during your session are stored in your folder on the microscope's computer. Confocal files can be really huge, so with multiple users the space will get used up very quickly if everyone stores their files there. It is your responsibility to copy the data onto a CD or your own computer within a week of your session. After that, the files will be automatically deleted.
Showing Off
If you take an image that you think is particularly spectacular, you can submit it for inclusion on the "gallery" page. Email the image in JPEG format, with a short description, to Alex Bannigan.
Microscopy Facility, Biology Department, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
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