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

TL;DR

CIRCE is a versatile near-infrared instrument for the Gran Telescopio Canarias, designed to provide imaging, polarimetry, and spectroscopy capabilities, with innovative opto-mechanical design and on-sky performance validation.

Contribution

The paper details the design, fabrication, and on-sky testing of CIRCE, a novel near-infrared instrument built largely by students, filling a capability gap before EMIR's deployment.

Findings

Successful on-sky performance demonstration

Innovative opto-mechanical design approach

Enhanced near-infrared observational capabilities

Abstract

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