Bibcode
Rodriguez Espinosa, Jose M.; Garcia-Vargas, Maria Luisa; Hammersley, Peter L.
Bibliographical reference
Ground-based Instrumentation for Astronomy. Edited by Alan F. M. Moorwood and Iye Masanori. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 5492, pp. 82-93 (2004).
Advertised on:
9
2004
Citations
1
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0
Description
The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC1) 10m telescope is now being
integrated at the ORM, in La Palma Spain. Likewise, three instruments
are being prepared for first light and, as of this writing, are about to
start their laboratory integration. These first light instruments are:
1) OSIRIS, a large field of view imager and multi-object spectrograph,
optimized for tuneable filter imaging, 2) ELMER a very sensitive imager
and spectrograph, also for the visible range, and 3) CANARICAM, a
diffraction-limited imager, spectrograph, polarimeter and coronagrapher
for the mid-IR. The GTC set of first light instruments will offer some
special observational capabilities to the astronomical community, namely
Tuneable filter Imaging in OSIRIS, fast spectroscopy and photometry in
both, ELMER and OSIRIS, and 10 microns Coronagraphy and Polarimetry with
CANARICAM. Yet another instrument, EMIR, a large field, near-IR
multi-object spectrograph and imager is in the Detailed Design phase.
EMIR will be the first of the GTC second generation set of instruments.
At the planning stage are several future instruments that will arrive to
the GTC with different calendars after Day One. In particular, FRIDA, a
near-IR diffraction-limited imager and spectrograph, that will operate
with the GTC Adaptive Optics system. FRIDA's conceptual design is being
started by a consortium lead by UNAM (Mexico) and in which the IAC and
the University of Florida also participate. FRIDA should be at the
telescope by the time that the AO system is having first light. This is
expected by late 2007 early 2008. There is interest in the GTC community
for installing visiting instruments on the GTC, thus the GTC board is
discussing a policy to allow visitor instruments, some of which have
already been proposed to be hosted by the GTC. In particular, CIRCE is a
near IR camera that is being built by the Department of Astronomy of the
University of Florida in Gainesville for the GTC using private funds,
under the GTC visitor instrument scheme. CIRCE should bridge the gap
between Day One and the arrival of EMIR enabling near IR imaging
capabilities to the GTC.