EMIR: commissioning results and plans for scientific exploitation

In this contribution, the EMIR instrument will be briefly described making emphasis on its capabilities as a common user instrument for the GTC. Then, I will report on the EMIR performances measured on the first commissioning periods of the instrument at the GTC, during this summer. Finally, a summary of the observing modes as they will be offered to the user astronomer will be given, together with the expected outcome from the online data reduction pipeline. EMIR is one of the first common user instruments for the GTC, the 10 meter telescope operating at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain). EMIR is being built by a Consortium of Spanish and French institutes led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). EMIR is primarily designed to be operated as a MOS in the K band, but offers a wide range of observing modes, including imaging and spectroscopy, both long slit and multiobject, in the wavelength range 0.9 to 2.5 μm. The development and fabrication of EMIR is funded by GRANTECAN and the Plan Nacional de Astronomía y Astrofísica (National Plan for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Spain).