BRIGHT beamlines construction

Owned by MX Cluster (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jun 14, 2023 by AS MX Wiki
2 min read

Currently, there is a lot of construction on site due to the building of the BRIGHT beamlines, as well as satellite buildings.

The BRIGHT beamlines will offer a range of exciting new capabilities, so check out their website to learn more.

“The High-Performance Macromolecular Crystallography beamline (MX3) will be capable of providing high-flux, microfocus X-rays for small and weakly diffracting protein crystals.”

“The BioSAXS Beamline will enable the study of nanoscale chemical and biological systems in solution, including surfactant and lipid mesophase systems, proteins and protein complexes.”

BioSAXS and MX3 are immediately next to MX, so there will likely be some disruption to MX operations during construction.

Information about construction:

  • Works will occur on weekdays, 7 am to 3.30 pm. Some Saturday construction may take place.

  • There will be various construction site safety instructions due to your proximity to the build; your onsite Beamline Induction will provide additional information.

  • Your Beamline Scientist will work closely with you to minimise the impacts of construction activities on your experiments as much as possible; one mitigation solution is appropriate timing of screening experiments vs dataset collection.

  • In the event that construction activity degrades dataset quality on MX2, necessitating screening only before 3:30pm, there is an expectation that researchers within CAPS will organise their time in a collaborative and collegial manner.

 

 

Beam Stability Monitor:

If you are collecting on site, you may be able to hear drilling and heavy machinery, which could affect beam quality. If you are collecting remotely, however, you will need to open the Beam Stability Monitor to check whether construction is affecting the beam.

To open this, go to the Shutter Flux controls interface and select ‘Beam Stability ’ (in soft blue here)

This will open this screen:

 

The black trace shows the vertical width of the beam, the stability of which is a good indicator of beam stability. If you see lots of vibration in this trace, consider screening rather than doing full data collections, or call your beamline staff for guidance.

The red trace shows whether the shutter is open or closed. Beam “stability” will jump when the shutter is being opened and closed. This is normal.