NanoWiki

The optical microscope in the cleanroom is a Nikon ECLIPSE LV150 optical microscope.

The manufacturers manual can be found here: nikon_lv150-150a_manual.pdf

The microscope lamp is a (LV-HL50W) 12V50W halogen lamp with uniform light intensity distribution across the filament area. Filament-based lamps have a finite life-time, so make sure to turn off the light when you are done with the optical microscope.

Since acetone can dissolve many plastics, do not spill any acetone on the stage. If you want to observe a lift-off process, you could use put a small petri dish in a larger petri dish, so that if the acetone spills from the smaller petri dish, it will not land on the stage.

It sometimes occurs that the X/Y-stage is stuck. If it happens, and the linear actuators are 'jittery' (i.e., the actuator moves back and forth without a sum translation occurring), it helps to restart the controller.

If the stage does not move at all, it might be that the nut came loose from the spindle. This is usually the case when the nut is not tightened enough. The cover panels can be removed to check if this is the case, and one could try and tighten the nut on the spindle. (In the case that the Y-actuator is not working, it is easier to remove the stage from the mount. When doing this, be extremely careful as not to hit the objective lenses with the stage and potentially damaging them. It would be best to remove the nose of objective lenses first. How this is done, can be found in the manual linked above.)

Sometimes, when the actuators are not operating properly, or failing every two or three days, the actuators just need a bit of grease.

To save annotations/measurements on an image, first capture the image. Make sure the correct objective is selected at which you took the picture, otherwise the measurements will be off.
Use one of the Annotations and measurement tools to make your measurements. Use the option 'Burn overlay', shortcut key 'Y', to burn the annotation layer into your captured image. Now you can save the image.

With the option 'Scan large image' you can create an overview picture of your complete sample. The microscope starts at the upper left corner of the sample takes a picture, moves the stage automatically and continues to scan the complete sample. Make sure you deselect 'image registration', otherwise the software will likely crash.
To get extremely high resolution images you can do this at high magnifications.