Beautiful Berkeley Lab
An aerial view. Not related to the beamlines, really. Just noting how beautiful Berkeley Lab is.
Pilatus on 5.0.2 has two new modules
Dectris was here at the ALS during the recent 2-bunch mode, and re-installed two of the modules on the Pilatus detector on beamline 5.0.2. Users may not have noticed, but the detector was previously missing panels on the far edges. These are now in good working order, and several test…
Berkeley’s Mini-Cyclotron
It turns out there is a small cyclotron at LBNL! It is used to produce medical isotopes used for PET scans. Some of the BCSB staff were lucky enough to be invited on a tour of the cyclotron, which is in building 56, not too far away from our more…
Tour of the ALS ring
After our last PRT meeting on Nov 4, Steve Rossi took a group on a tour inside the ALS ring to point out the future site of the Gemini insertion device. This month and next are a great time to visit the ALS, since the ring tunnel is open and available for touring.
The Pilatus 6M detector has arrived!
Here it is at beamline 5.0.2, unpacked from the wooden crate, but not unpacked from its case yet. Install and commissioning in the beamline will begin in just a few weeks!
Scientific Advisory Board First Meeting Sept 18 2015
We are very fortunate to have an outstanding Scientific Advisory Board for the new beamline (“Gemini”) we are building in sector 2 at the ALS. The board members are: Bob Fischetti (APS), Dan Harrington (SSRL), Gwyndaf Evans (Diamond Light Source) and Dan Harrington (SSRL). All of the committee members have…
BCSB Represented at the ACA in Philly
The BCSB had a good showing at the ACA in Philadelphia this year. Dr. Banu Sankaran ran a session on service crystallography, and the BCSB teamed up with other ALS scientists to run a booth at the conference.
The User Forum continues…
Our second User Forum was on March 4, in which we discussed the purchase of a pixel-array detector for beamline 5.0.2. The exciting news since then is that we will be able to purchase a Pilatus 6M for the beamline. Expected delivery is in September of this year.
The third User Forum was on April 2, in which we discussed the diode-beamstop device which the BCSB is developing (allows measurement of flux during data collection), as well as the MiniKappa interlocks on beamline 5.0.2, which will now allow a full 360 rotation of omega (sometimes called Phi) with a maximum kappa angle of 55 degrees.
First User Forum Feb 5
The BCSB had its first User Forum meeting on Feb 5. We discussed the possibilities for the new b3 software interface, showed some screenshots of new the new interface, and gathered information from our users on what they wanted in the “new b3”. It was a very productive discussion! The…