The instrumentation plan of the 10.4m GTC telescope

Corradi, Romano L. M.; Cabrera-Lavers, Antonio; Lombardi, Gianluca
Bibliographical reference

Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X

Advertised on:
7
2024
Number of authors
3
IAC number of authors
3
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
The 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) was designed to be a versatile telescope, able to serve a wide scientific community. To this aim, various focal stations have been equipped, including a Cassegrain, two Nasmyth foci, and four folded-Cassegrain stations. This allows an ambitious instrumentation plan to be developed. We present the latest developments and plans, with emphasis on the most relevant and innovative features. They include: new detectors and cryogenic (pulse tube) systems for the main GTC instruments, the migration of the HiPERCAM imager to a dedicated focus with an ad-hoc rotator; the commissioning of the single-conjugated AO system for the GTC; the preparation to host in the Coudé room a fiber-fed UV and optical spectrograph which aims at a 10 cm s−1 radial velocity precision; and the plan for the future instruments, which include the upgrading of the adaptive optics system and the development of an imager and spectrograph covering simultaneously the optical and near-infrared domains.