Hints Tips and Tricks for using the Cary Eclipse Fluorescence Reader

Thanks to the technicians at Varian for these tips:

1. Make sure that both filters, excitation and emission, are both set to "automatic" when doing the instrument set up.

2. The source is to the right hand side as you face the instrument and the detector is at the back. In general, you should set the cuvette with the short path length facing the source and the long path length facing the detector. However, it is also a good idea to try it the other way just in case your samples will work better with the paths reversed.

3. Use the "pre-scan" option to check for the optimal wavelength settings. Sometimes the wavelengths measured on one instrument may not be exactly the same for another. Even a difference of a few nanometers has been known to cause low readings.

4. The detector output is in "A. U." which stands for "arbitrary units."

This information posted by:

Kevin Olsen

Instrumentation Specialist

Chemistry and Biochemistry Support Staff

Room 359 Richardson Hall

Montclair State University

Normal Ave

Montclair, NJ, 07043

973-655-4076