The dimensions of the instruments in design for the next generation of large telescopes exceed the capacities of the cryogenic and vacuum infrastructures available at the IAC. Cryogenic instrumentation requires a large number of tests to verify its mechanisms and components, as well as of the whole instrument once assembled. These verification tests must be performed in high-vacuum and cryogenic temperatures following proper safety practices for people and the instrument itself. It is mandatory to establish well designed and tested operational and safety protocols before these cryogenic capabilities can be offered as common user infrastructures.
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HARMONI is one of the three ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope) first light scientific instruments. It is a visible and near-infrared (0.47 to 2.45 µm) integral field spectrograph, providing the ELT's core spectroscopic capability, over a range of resolving powers from R (≡λ/Δλ) ~4000 to R~20000.