Emir HAWAII-II First Test Results

EMIR is a multiobject intermediate resolution near infrared (1.0-2.5 mum) spectrograph with image capabilities to be mounted on the 10-m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) as one of the first common user instruments. The GTC, located on the Spanish island of La Palma, is due for first light in early 2003. EMIR is being built by a consortium of Spanish, French and British institutions, led by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. The current development of EMIR is funded by GRANTECAN and the Plan Nacional de Astronomia y Astrofisica. The EMIR Electronic Team is committed to provide the full characterization of its detector and associated controller well in advance of the Instrument completion. A first run of tests have been performed on the engineering grade array. These tests facilitate to fine tune the test bench and to give a rough idea of the science grade detector behavior prior to its use.