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3i Marianas Spinning Disk Confocal

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Spinning disk

The 3i Marianas is a CSU-X1 A1 Spinning Disk Confocal attached to a Zeiss Axio Observer 7 microscope with a range of long working distance lenses including a 63x water immersion objective. The system is optimized for speed and features a Hamamatsu ImagEM X2 back-thinned EM CCD camera with 512 x 512 pixels and capture speed up to 70 fps. It also has an Ablate!™ 532 module with 532nm pulsed laser for photo-activation and ablation and a VectorM™ VIS High Speed Point Scanner for photomanipulation techniques including FRAP, photoactivation and photoablation.

Image and Video Gallery

See confocal workstation gallery page

Laser Lines for Excitation

  • 405 nm solid state laser
  • 488 nm solid state laser
  • 561 nm solid state laser

Dichroics and Emission Filters

  • CSU-X1 dichroic for 488/561 excitation with dual emitter
  • CSU-X1 dichroic for 405/488/561/640 excitation with quad emitter
  • bandpass filter 617/73
  • bandpass filter 525/45

Laser Ablation

Ablate!™ 532 module with 532nm pulsed laser (pulse energy > 60 microJ at 200 Hz) for photo-activation and ablation and VectorM™ VIS High Speed Point Scanner.

Camera

Hamamatsu ImagEM X2 back-thinned EM CCD camera with 512 x 512 pixels, pixel size 16μm, frame rate 70 fps.

Microscope and Accessories

Zeiss Axio Observer 7 inverted microscope with motorized, programmable x,y,z stage, additional piezo z-stage, joystick and touch panel docking control station. A definite focus (Version 2) attachment corrects for focus drifts during overnight time lapse experiments.

Objectives

MagnificationN.A. ImmersionTypeWorking Distance
20x0.5 dryEC Plan Neofluar2mm
40x1.2 WC-Apochromat0.28 mm
63x1.15 WLD C-Apochromat0.60 mm

Software

SlideBook™ 6 for Windows 7. Ratio Imaging Module for Slidebook™ Automated ratio imaging detection for capture, automated ratio calculation, ratio calibration guide, pixel by pixel or arbitrary area ratio calculations, real-time ratio calculations, real-time ratio graphing and more. FRET Module for SlideBook™ Includes tools to measure FRET on both a pixel-by-pixel and region basis; uses filter-based FRET computation and bleed-through correction methods including ratiometric FRET, FRETN, E-FRET, and acceptor photobleaching. Offline version with all features is available in CMIF.

Resources

Marianas Quickguide