GIANO: an ultra-stable IR echelle spectrometer optimized for high precision radial velocity measurements and for high throughput low resolution spectroscopy

GIANO is an IR cross-dispersed echelle spectrometer designed to achieve high throughput, high resolving power, wide band coverage and high accuracy radial velocity measurements. It also includes polarimetric capabilities and a low resolution mode that make it a very versatile, common user instrument which will be permanently mounted and available at one of the Nasmyth foci of the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) located at Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory (ORM), La Palma, Spain. This Project was selected by INAF as the top priority instrument among those proposed within the Second Generation Instrumentation Plan of the TNG. More informations on this project can be found at the web page http://www.bo.astro.it/giano