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

Abstract

Received (to be inserted by publisher); Revised (to be inserted by publisher); Accepted (to be inserted by publisher);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.

The Late-time Afterglow Evolution of Long Gamma-Ray Bursts GRB 160625B and GRB 160509A

“…At this time the contribution of the afterglow itself was a factor of ∼ 13 fainter than at 140 d, assuming a f ν ∝ t α decline where α = −2. Imaging of GRB 160509A in the H band was performed using the Canarias InfraRed Camera Experiment (CIRCE; Eikenberry et al 2018) instrument on Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) on 2016 May 15 (5.8 d) and 2016 June 3 (24.8 d). Late-time imaging of GRB 160509A was done using HST /WFC3 and the F110W and F160W filters on 2016 June 13 (35.3 d); template images of the host galaxy in these filters were obtained on 2017 July 5 (422.1 d), when, assuming α = −2, the afterglow was a factor of 143 fainter.…”

Modeling the unresolved NIR-MIR SEDs of local ($z<0.1$) QSOs

“…Note that we include in the sample three additional objects that we observe in the NIR wavelengths, and report in this paper. Using the Canarias InfraRed Camera Experiment (CIRCE, Garner et al 2016;Eikenberry et al 2018) on the GTC between October 2016 and February 2017 through the open Spain-Mexico collaborative time, we imaged four objects in the H-band (λ c = 1.63 µm) and seven objects in Ks-band (λ c = 2.16 µm), respectively (PI: M. Martínez-Paredes, ID: GTC2-16BIACMEX). CIRCE is a NIR camera that operates in the spectral range between 1 and 2.5 µm, which has a total field of view of 3.4 × 3.4 with plate scale of 0.1 /pixel.…”

Update on the preliminary design of SCALES: the Santa Cruz Array of Lenslets for Exoplanet Spectroscopy

“…The bolt-and-go approach has been used with great success for a variety of instruments, from the small (FISICA/FLAMINGOS-1 46 to large facility-class instruments such as CIRCE, [59][60][61] FRIDA, 47 and MIRADAS, 48 Figure 7. An example SCALES bolt-and-go mirror mount.…”

“…The design of the imaging arm requires that the slide be able to fully retract and not vignette the 20 arcsec field of view, which requires a comparably large range of travel. The design design heritage from linear mechanisms deployed in CIRCE 61 and MIRADAS 48 by the University of Florida at the 10 m Gran Telescopio Canarias. The slide (colored orange in Figure 9) rides along two steel rails on rulon linear sleeve bearings; an uncoated stainless steel ball screw is coupled using a helical coupler to a Phytron VSS43 stepper motor (the coupler allows for small shaft misalignments between the motor and lead screw).…”