This is a view of the goniometer of our Bruker SMART APEX diffractometer. The detector is the large box on the left side of the instrument. The crystal-detector distance is adjustable on the 2θ arm. Here the distance is set at 56 mm. The source is on the right side and the crystal is atop the copper mounting-pin in the center of the image. The mounting pin is coincident with the φ axis. The angle χ is fixed at 54.74° and the χ block containing the φ drive is mounted on the ω circle, which is concentric with 2θ. The nozzle from the Oxford Cryosystems Cryostream is coming into the picture vertically at the center of the image. It ends in the white teflon nozzle seen just above the crystal. Most work in our lab is performed at 100 K (-173 °C, -279 °F) . The detector is built around a CCD, the same technology in most digital cameras. The CCD allows a large area of space to imaged at one time, compared to scintillation detectors, which measure just one reflection at a time. Data collection can be performed in hours, compared to days for the scintillation detector. We have collected data in as little as 90 minutes from selection of crystal to solution of structure. Typically we collect data for 12-15 hours to be sure that counting statistics are sufficient for a satisfactory result.