Nikon Eclipse TE2000U Inverted Microscope with twin CCD cameras

• Nikon Eclipse TE2000U fluorescence inverted microscope for slides or short-term live cell work
• Manual Nikon XY stage with inserts suitable for a variety of live-cell culture flasks, multiwell plates and Petri dishes
• Optional Prior ProScan motorised XY stage and motorised Z focus with Proscan III controller for Z-stacks and XY whole section raster scans
• Hamamatsu C4742-96 low-noise B&W CCD camera for flourescence image aquisition using IPLab or NIS Elements Basic Research imaging software
• Hi-resolution Nikon Digital Sight DS-5M colour CCD camera for bright-field image acquisition using Nikon's NIS Elements Basic Research software
• Nikon Objectives: 4x, 10x, 20x, 40x, 60x air LWD objectives, with 60x oil objective and 1x air objective available on request
• With phase contrast [10x to 60x air objectives] and DIC [60x oil only]
• Fluorescent filter sets for visualising DAPI, FITC, TRITC, and CY5
• Download the Nikon captured image calibration data for all the objectives and both cameras here: Nikon calibration.

We have recently upgraded to the full Basic Research NIS Elements v4.0 image acquisition and analysis software package. You can download the NIS Elements manual and the freeware NIS Elements Viewer software here. The Hamamatsu B&W Orca 285 camera can now also be used with NIS-Elements BR for B&W fluorescence and wide-field image acquisition. NIS Elements now includes full calibration for the objective in use, e.g. for adding scale bars. For general information about this microscope see the Nikon Eclipse TE2000 brochure.

We have a selection of in-house camera/software help guides for the Nikon microscope. There's our IPLabs/Hamamatsu guide [fluorescence imaging using IPLabs software], the Nikon colour camera with NISElements guide [5MP colour camera] and the Hamamatsu B&W camera with NISElements guide [fluorescence imaging using NISElements software]. All our in-house guides are regularly updated and printed copies of the latest guides are in the microscope room by the Nikon system. In addition there is a 'Setting up Kohler illumination' guide for bright-field work, and a sheet detailing the objectives fitted to the Nikon microscope. Our in-house guides can only be downloaded by staff from within the WTCHG intranet.

All of the Nikon air objectives above 10x (i.e. the 20x to 60x air objectives) are long working distance ones with an adjustable working distance collars which allows them to visualize specimens through thick glass/plastic e.g. culture flasks, Petri dishes and multi-well plates. This compromises image quality compared to high numerical aperture oil objectives but does actually allow you to focus on the area of interest deep into the sample. The correction collars on the 20, 40x and 40x objectives must be adjusted correctly for good image quality.

A Nikon 60x oil objective is available on request, although this short working distance objective can only be used with a standard 0.17mm thick glass cover slip [e.g. with glass slides or glass bottomed culture vessels such as Mattek dishes].

Using NISElements the Nikon motorised XY stage can be set up to automatically raster scan all the microscope fields from stained tissue sections or cells mounted on glass slides, glass bottomed dishes or other culture vessels.

The system can autofocus with the optional Z motor and then autostitch the sequence of photographs together. If desired a background correct can also be applied to every field to reduce uneven illumination in the images.