These are instructions for routine spectroscopy using the Cary 500. If you have difficult samples, you will need to explore different options available on this instrument such as single beam mode, baseline correction, and averaging and smoothing routines.

1. Turn on the computer if necessary and double click on the Cary WinUV icon. You will see a variety of shortcuts to common modes of operation for the spectrometer. If you are simply running a spectrum, double click on the Scan shortcut. (Note you can also just click on the Scan icon from the desktop.)
2. If the spectrometer is not already turned on, turn it on with the on/off switch at the lower left corner of the instrument. The spectrometer will go through a series of self checks. Messages appear in the lower left corner telling you what is happening. When the spectrometer is ready, the traffic light icon will turn green.
3. Click the Setup… button on the left side of the window.
1. On the first tab (labeled Cary) you must set the wavelength range over which you wish to scan. You can also set the Y Mode (absorbance, %T, etc) and the Scan Control which sets the data accumulation rate. You should set the scan rate (nm/min) and data interval (how many data points per nm).
2. On the Options tab you can choose the mode of operation. Set the SBW (slit bandwidth) to a value less than or equal to the Data Interval which you set on the Cary tab, and choose the beam mode. The choice of "Double" seems to give the best results.
4. Now you are ready to collect data. Place a cuvette of your solvent or other suitable blank in the cell holder at the rear and place your sample in the front cell holder. Close the cover. Start the spectrum by clicking on the green traffic light Start button. You can click on the double headed arrow to rescale the display to full screen so that you can see what is happening as you go along.
5. After your spectrum has been collected, you may print it (File -> Print) or do further processing such as picking out the peaks. The Peak Picking may be done from the button with the peak on it (second from the right) or from the Graph -> Peak Labels menu option. In either case, you will get a window which allows you to specify peak type, label type, and threshold of detection.