Zeiss 880 booking system is currently shut down

Dear all,

Due to repeated error reports recently, Zeiss engineer was here yesterday checking LSM880 confocal system. Here are the feedback we received.  

1> 20 x lens is totally broken, which is caused by the friction of lens and stage, meaning user/users forgot to lower down the lens during lens switching. 

2> The HAL light element is dislocated, caused by violent disassemble of the outer transparent plastic shelter, and the shelter has always been banned for disassembling. 

3> All lens including the air lens are covered with lens oil. while it is common sense that we should use lens oil only on oil lens. 

4> Definit focus system is not working, we have no idea whether it is caused by misoperation or not.  

It is not only a great financial lost (~42,000 RMB) for us, but also indeed affect research projects which rely heavily on imaging. We hope all of the users take care of the equipments seriously.  We warmly welcome all of you can supervise each other, tell user or report to us whenever there is any incorrect operation. 

Combined with other problems we have now, engineers are still working on troubleshooting, please be aware that we will close the booking system for Zeiss 880 for a short period (around two weeks). We will let you know once the confocal system is ready to use. 

Meanwhile, to serve our research in a better way, we are planning to hold user permission examination for LSM880 soon, we will keep you updated with more details.