CCI Makes CanariCam Components

CLEVELAND, Ohio, Aug. 20 -- Cleveland Crystals Inc. (CCI), a maker of crystals and electro-optic devices, has furnished a 3-mm clear-aperture cadmium selenide (CdSe) Wollaston prism assembly and CdSe half-wave plate for CanariCam, a diffraction-limited mid-infrared imager with spectroscopic, polarimetric and coronagraphic options.

At right (top): Cleveland Crystals' composite half-wave plate (HWP), to be mounted into the HWP holder of CanariCam (bottom). (Images not to scale)

CanariCam will be used on the 10-m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GranTeCan), which is currently under construction at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, in the Canary Islands, Spain. GranTeCam will investigate distant objects in the universe.

CCI designed these optical assemblies in conjunction with members of the University of Florida Department of Astronomy. The company said the components will facilitate research into how magnetic fields affect phenomena such as the formation of new stars or the creation of black holes.

For more information on CanariCam, visit: www.astro.ufl.edu/~packham/CanariCam/canaricam_home.htm