Galway Liverpool Imaging Polarimeter - GLIP - design and prototype status

The Galway Liverpool imaging polarimeter (GLIP) has been designed to perform simultaneous linear and circular polarimetric measurements at sub-second cadence. The science goal of the instrument is to perform observations of fast evolving astronomical transients with leading robotic telescope facilities. GLIP builds on the legacy of polarimeter instruments developed by the Liverpool Telescope team of the Astrophysical Research Institute, Liverpool, with the RINGO & MOPTOP series, and the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) with the GASP polarimeter. The instrument works as a four-beam imaging polarimeter of a 2.3' field-of-view onto one detector, allowing the determination of the full Stokes vector [I Q U V] across the image field once the characteristic matrix of the instrument is known. Optical design, characterisation of polarimetry and tolerance of the instrument optical components using computational, lab testing result & mathematical methods are discussed.