Canari-Cam is a mid-infrared imager with spectrogroscopic, coronagraphic, and polarimetric capabilities, which will be mounted initially at the Nasmyth focus of the 10-m Gran Telescopio Canarias at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain). In the future, when the Cassegrin focus of the telescope is commissioned, we expect CanariCam to move to this focus, which will provide superior performance with the instrument.

CanariCam is designed as a diffraction-limited imager. It is optimised as an imager, and although it will offer a range of other observing modes, these will not compromise the imaging capability.

The fact that CanariCam offers polarimetry and coronagraphy in addition to the more standard imaging and spectroscopic modes makes it an extremely versatile and powerful instrument that is unique in the world.

CanariCam will work in the thermal infrared between ~7.5 and 25 microns. At the short wavelength end the cut-off is determined by the atmosphere and specifically atmospheric water vapour. At the long wavelength end the cut-off is determined by the detector; this loses sensitivity beyond ~ 24 microns, although the cut-off for individual detectors varies significantly.

CanariCam is a very compact design. We expect that the total weight of the cryostat and its on-telescope electronics will be under 400 kg.

Most previous mid-infrared instruments have used liquid helium as a cryogen. One of the requirements of CanariCam though is that it should require no expensive and difficult to handle cryogens. CanariCam will use a two-stage closed cycle cryocooler system to cool the cold optics and cryostat interior down to approximately 28K, and the detector itself to around 8K, the temperature at which the detector works most efficiently.

Click here to see images of the internal design of CanariCam at CDR.