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To park the beam on a Leica confocal you select 'Spot bleach'
in the time-course menu.  There used to be a button for it in
a previous release but now it just seems to be a checkbox.  You
can do multiple spots.  (Thanks to Ellie Kable for this information
since I've neber tried it)

Before anyone asks, on an MRC 600 it's Park in MPL.

To actually measure the spot size, as I said before, sub-resolution
fluorescent objects are the best way to go and it's just occurred
to me that quantum dots should be even better than beads (smaller,
don't bleach, don't vaporise).  Has anyone tried them?  I guess
you'd have to stick them down pretty well to avoid Brownian motion
and or laser-tweezing by the beam.

                                                Guy





>Is there a way to park a laser on a Leica confocal microscope??? Is this
>discussion entirely focused on Zeiss optics? .The only control that I
>see that comes close to parking  a laser  on a Leica is a zoom of 32x.
>this is used  to bleach a sample and this will give a big spot ( really
>big)  which would invalidate the test.
>Of course each company can now declare that they have the smallest laser
>spot size as there does not appear yet to be a definitive test (error
>free) Keep up the dialog to get this important test described properly.
>
>bob
>
>Robert M. Zucker, PhD
>U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
>Office of Research and Development
>National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory
>Reproductive Toxicology Division, MD 72
>Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 27711
>Tel: 919-541-1585; fax 919-541-4017
>e-mail: [log in to unmask]


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