Safety

⚠️ Review and follow all relevant chemical, laser, trash disposal, and fire hazard safety rules of your institute!

Laser safety awareness

⚠️ Avoid doing stupid mistakes that can endanger your eyes.

• Never ever look directly into the laser beam path.
• Usually, the mesoSPIM is a laser class 3B setup. Take all necessary precautions that come with this classification.
• Before each alignment step: Mentally prepare yourself for stray radiation and weird reflections. Where will they go? How to avoid them?
• Do alignment steps with low power laser beams first. A 2 mW power set via the laser software is sufficient for alignment.
• Increase the intensity only when you are sure that you are close to good alignment.
• Take off jewelry, rings, watch, and any other reflective objects during alignment.
• Do not do alignment steps in a rush or when tired. Take your time. Getting a setup up and running tonight is lovely, but never worth a fovea.

⚠️ During normal operation, light from one excitation path will leak out on the other side and possibly at other directions in the room. Watch for these leaks and block them with beam blocks, laser covers, or laser-grade black curtains.