CIRCE: The Canarias InfraRed Camera Experiment for the Gran Telescopio Canarias

摘要

The Canarias InfraRed Camera Experiment (CIRCE) is a near-infrared (1-2.5micron) imager, polarimeter and low-resolution spectrograph operating as avisitor instrument for the Gran Telescopio Canarias 10.4-meter telescope. Itwas designed and built largely by graduate students and postdocs, with helpfrom the UF astronomy engineering group, and is funded by the University ofFlorida and the U.S. National Science Foundation. CIRCE is intended to helpfill the gap in near-infrared capabilities prior to the arrival of EMIR to theGTC, and will also provide the following scientific capabilities to complimentEMIR after its arrival: high-resolution imaging, narrowband imaging,high-time-resolution photometry, imaging polarimetry, low resolutionspectroscopy. In this paper, we review the design, fabrication, integration,lab testing, and on-sky performance results for CIRCE. These include a novelapproach to the opto-mechanical design, fabrication, and alignment.