>Help!!!
>
>I was hired recently to work in an imaging facility as an electron
>microscopy supervisor.
>Along with the EM's, there is a Zeiss version 2.08 Laser Scanning Microscope in
>the facility, and because I am the only employee in this multi-user
>facility it is up to
>me to at least be able to inform the users of the basics.  My question is,
>can any of you
>recommend good beginner level confocal resources that would be helpful for
>me and
>the users (books, web pages, etc.). Keep in mind when I say beginner, I
>mean beginner.
>The first time I saw a confocal microscope was the day I started working here.

I have news for you.  I don't think you've seen a confocal microscope yet!

If I interpret this model number correctly it is a non-confocal laser scanning
microscope that Zeiss made quite a few years ago.  Do you have any idea of
the date?

The first Zeiss confocal microscope was the LSM 10 which came out around 1989,
but before that they made laser scanning microscopes which were not confocal.
These are useful for OBIC (optical bean induced charge) and other sorts of
quantitative microscopy but do not provide the optical sectioning and 3D imaging
which is the hallmark of the confocal microscope.

If this is what you have then the bad news is that the regular confocal
resources are not going to be any use to you.  The good news is that probably
nobody will want to use the machine anyway.  Two books which might be of
assistance are "Theory and practice of scanning optical microscopy" by
Tony Wilson & Colin Sheppard, Academic Press 1984 (just skip all the math!)
and Scanned Image Microscopy, edited by Eric Ash, Academic Press 1980.

                                                Guy Cox

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