I don't think it looks like satellite spots at all--it looks more like a flat diffuse scattering background or perhaps a diffuse ring, with some strange blanking/clearing of a circle around the spot. Perhaps it is a result of having not just the usual convolution of the molecule with the lattice, but an added level of a small number (say tens to hundreds) of similar microcrystals within the crystal, whose diffraction is also part of the convolution, but whose small number results in broadening of the spots, making Airy disks? Look at the attached image for what I found on wiki diffraction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction): Airy disks around stars, which look pretty exactly like our diffraction spots. Same phenomenon? The caption for the image is "The Airy disk around each of the stars from the 2.56 m telescope aperture can be seen in this lucky image of the binary star zeta Boötis." I have not convinced myself, however, that the small number of crystals (my suggestion) could make Airy disks. Maybe the pin, or something else, got in the way?

JPK


----- Original Message ----- From: "Colin Nave" <colin.n...@diamond.ac.uk>
To: <CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK>
Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 12:52 PM
Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Strange spots


OK! John prompted me to look more carefully at the images and they
don't seem to be consistent with any optics or detector effect.

Attached a Blowup (almost as strange as Antonioni's 1966 film with this
name) of one of the areas. As others have pointed out already, the
features are not round halos surrounding the spots though they look like
this at first glance. They seem to consist of fuzzier subsidiary spots.
If these spots were oriented in a 6 fold manner, this would, I think be
consistent with a commensurate modulation with q=0.5a* (assuming the
subsidiary spots are half way between the main spots). However, there
seems to be some evidence that the subsidiary spots around each main
spot are  30 degrees apart not 60 degrees. A bit difficult to see
though. Looking at the movie, I think they are most visible for zones
with constant l (h and k varying) though they presumably occur
elsewhere. I presume the indexing would reveal this. It might be worth
trying to index on a supercell with a=146A and see if there is anything
left.

Regards
Colin





-----Original Message-----
From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:ccp...@jiscmail.ac.uk] On
Behalf Of John R Helliwell
Sent: 03 November 2010 17:00
To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Strange spots

Dear David,
Many thanks indeed for this movie and the extra info.
It is quite captivating!

The 'strange spot' features do seem progress to other regions
of reciprocal space at approximately constant diffraction
resolution in an anti-clockwise manner.....but I am still
digesting your movie....

Behind the scenes discussion, between Colin Nave, James
Holton and myself, has been going on. Since Colin has been
the main leader in these I leave it to Colin to take it up
from here and I can chip in if I can add anything.

Greetings,
John

On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 3:53 PM, David Goldstone
<david.goldst...@nimr.mrc.ac.uk> wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> Thank you for the replies sorry about the delay in my
reply. Here is
> some more information, for those of you that are interested, to try
> fill in some gaps.
>
> The data was collected on our home source with osmic
vairmax-HF optics
> and an RAXISIV++ detector. We are investigating whether it is an
> optics issue but this is unlikely as other crystals in the
screening
> run didn't display this phenomenon.
>
> The crystal was grown in the presence of 12% glycerol and
transfered
> to 20% glycerol as a cryo. I haven't tried other cryos as crystals
> also grow in 20% glycerol and do not require further cryoprotectant.
>
> I have uploaded a movie showing a wedge of data showing how the
> circles around the spots progress.
> http://www.4shared.com/video/o8_YmInD/Spot_defect.html (~12mb
> download)
>
> The crystals index and scale in p6122 (a=b=73, c=110) with a single
> monomer in the ASU (by matthews, 45% solvent). We do however see a
> peak in the native patterson at (0,0,0.2 ~50% origin height).
>
> Cheers
>
> Dave
>
>
> On 29/10/2010 17:08, David Goldstone wrote:
>>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> Does anyone have any insight into what the circles around
the spots
>> might be?
>>
>> cheers
>>
>> Dave
>
> --
> David Goldstone, PhD
> National Institute for Medical Research Molecular Structure The
> Ridgeway Mill Hill London NW7 1AA
>



--
Professor John R Helliwell DSc




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