Bibcode
Charcos-Llorens, Miguel V.; Eikenberry, Stephen S.; Edwards, Michelle L.; Lasso, Nestor M.; Marin-Franch, Antonio; Packham, Christopher C.
Bibliographical reference
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy II. Edited by McLean, Ian S.; Casali, Mark M. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 7014, pp. 70142M-70142M-11 (2008).
Advertised on:
8
2008
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
The Canarias InfraRed Camera Experiment (CIRCE) for the Gran Telescopio
Canarias (GTC) is one of the few infrared instruments in the world using
a four-beam polarimeter. The classical double-beam configuration
consists of a half-wave plate (HWP) and a Wollaston Prism (WP) that
allow measurement of two linear polarization components of the light in
a single exposure. Instead, our instrument includes a WeDoWo - a dual-WP
system with principal axis at 45 degrees that is inserted near the pupil
plane. Thus, all linear Stokes parameters can be obtained in a single
observation. We can also perform medium-resolution (R=400-1500)
spectro-polarimetry by inserting a grism in the beam. The CIRCE focal
plane mask includes three field stops for imaging polarimetry, three
slits for spectropolarimetry and three slits for regular spectroscopy of
nearby sources. CIRCE also has a high-speed photometry mode that,
combined with polarimetry on a large telescope such as the GTC, will
provide important insights into highly-variable sources such as
microquasars.