EMIR

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Latest News

November 2011
Subject: EMIR taking shape!

GTC's future work-horse instrument, the Infrared Multi-Object Spectrograph, also known as EMIR, is taking shape in an impressive way. Important progress is being made in the offices and workshops of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias where the instrument is being developed. And the results are now becoming tangible, as plans and drawing are gradually being converted into real hardware.

Many parts of the instrument are already complete. Also most of the optical components have been delivered, and the detector has been proven to be in correct working order. The configurable slit unit, a complex cryogenic mechanism, is in an advanced stage of construction. In future months the integration of the instrument will take place, during which step-wise testing under cryogenic conditions will constitute key milestones on the path to delivery to the telescope.

The attached picture shows the cryostat, which is currently being put together for the first time. Note its impressive size!

Although it will still take quite some time before EMIR will be delivering science routinely at the telescope, the expectations for the instrument are very high. Its combination of imaging and spectroscopic capability, in particular its multi-object mode, make the instrument extremely versatile and powerful, and therefore much sought after.

The EMIR cryostat, put together for the first time.

Drawing showing how EMIR will be attached to the telescope.

Instrument Features

EMIR is a wide field camera and a near-infrared multi-objetc medium resolution spectrograph to be use the GTC telescope. It is equipped with, among others, three state-of-the-art high technology subsystems. Some of them are specially designed for this project: a robotic system reconfigurable of slits (to obtain spectrum of around 50 objects simultaneously); dispersers elements formed by combining high quality diffraction networks, manufactured by photoresistivers procedures, and large conventional prisms, and the HAWAII-2 Rockwell detector, designed for the near-infrared with a format of 2048x2048 pixels, and with a new control system, developed by the project team. Emir is a second-generation instrument to be installed at the Nasmyth focus of GTC.

It is a project led by the IAC with the participation of the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique - Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees (France), Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique - Observatoire de Marselle (France).

Features

Observing Modes

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Support Astronomer in charge of EMIR at GTC

• (Contact person)

More information:

• URL: http://www.ucm.es/info/emir/
• URL: Proyecto EMIR (IAC)
• URL: http://www.iac.es/project/emir/emir.html

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