Search the CONFOCAL archive at
http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal

We routinely do overnight incubations, and I'm trying to extend that 
into weekend-long incubations.  The simple trick that helped us was 
to simply put a small beaker of water directly onto the stage.  The 
stage is slightly warmer than the surroundings due to the motors, and 
so the water will evaporate and supply humidity for the surroundings.

Andy

At 05:07 PM 6/20/2007, you wrote:
>Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
>Hi There,
>I was wondering what people are using to avoid media evaporation during
>live cell imaging (long time courses - 24-48 hours / in 8 well labtek
>chambered coverslips).  We have a home made temperature control
>incubator surrounding our LSM 510 NLO with 2 photon.  We cant use
>perfusion setup because expensive drugs are being pipetted in each well
>throughout the time course.  The lid of the chambered coverslip seems to
>help, but it causes the issue of if while removing the lid to add a drug
>in the middle of the experiment, it knocks anything even the slightest
>bit, the entire xy and z marked positions are completely thrown off.
>Any suggestion are welcome.
>
>-Surita
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Surita Banwait
>Morphology & Imaging Core
>Buck Institute for Age Research
>8001 Redwood Blvd.
>Novato, CA 94945
>415-209-2221
>[log in to unmask]
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
>Behalf Of Andrew M. O'Grady
>Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 2:50 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Problems with lamp housing for OSRAM 103HBO
>
>Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
>Hello Everyone,
>
>   This is my first email to this list. I apologize that this is not
>exactly related to microscopy, but this seems to be the largest
>knowledge base about mercury vapor lamps that I have been able to
>find on the internet.
>   We are using an HBO 103W bulb for our Schlieren imaging system for
>supersonic flow visualization. The old setup used an OSRAM 200W/2
>bulb with a lamp housing and lens (J. Unertl Optical Co.) and a
>power supply from Robert W. Gates & co.  The equipment must be at
>least 30 years old, if not 50 years. Recently the power supply
>stopped working, and we purchased a Nikon C-SHP1 power supply. We
>hooked up the power supply to the old housing (making certain
>modifications), and used an HBO103W bulb which worked fantastically
>for about 30 hours, having been turned off and on maybe 10 times.
>The last time I tried to light it, the "Lamp Ready" light flickered
>for 1 or 2 seconds and then went off. Examining the lamp, it did not
>explode, but the inside of the glass is covered with mercury, so
>that the electrodes are not even visible. I did not even try to
>relight the bulb, I just assumed it was ruined.
>
>I think that the bulb has probably failed from the modifications
>that we made to the connections in the housing. The first
>modification was that the mount for the bottom of the bulb had to
>be made smaller because of the smaller diameter of the 103Wbulb.
>This we did by using a small sleeve of copper inserted into
>whatever metal material the existing mount was, possibly bronze.
>After the bulb stopped working, the inside of the copper sleeve is
>tinged pink, compared to the outside.
>
>  For the top bulb mount, the old style bulb we were using had a
>screw on it, and was attached to a flexible wire protected by
>ceramic beads. The new style does not have a screw, so we made
>another sleeve out of copper with a screw to tighten. The flexible
>wiring with ceramic is still used to account for thermal expansion.
>After running, the top copper mount is now dark gray-colored
>(probably oxide), but this can be scratched off.
>
>One other thing I noticed before the bulb would not light was that
>there appeared to be some small bubbles inside of the bulb near the
>bottom electrode after I had run it a few times.
>
>I appreciate people taking the time to help me on this, and I intend
>on attempting to contact OSRAM regarding this matter, but this
>seemed like a good place to look for assistance.
>
>Thanks,
>Andrew O'Grady
>
>--
>Andrew M. O'Grady
>212-854-7306
>PhD Candidate
>Mechanical Engineering Department
>Columbia University
>Mudd Building
>500 West 120th Street
>New York, NY 10027 USA

Andrew Resnick, Ph. D.
Instructor
Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Case Western Reserve University
216-368-6899 (V)
216-368-4223 (F)