Introduction

In recent years millimeter wavelength bolometer arrays have begun what promises to be a revolution comparable im magnitude with that of CCD devices in the optical and infrared.

The SuZIE system (Holzapfel et al. 1997, Mauskopf et al. 1998) installed at CSO, with 12 elements and operating in wavelengths centered at 1.2, 1.4 and 2.1 mm; the MPIfR system on the IRAM 30-m telescope with 19 pixels and operating at 1.3 mm and SCUBA  (Holland et al. 1998) on the JCMT 15-m telescope which consists of two arrays of 37 and 91 pixels each and at wavelengths centered at 850/750 microns and 450/350 microns are the largest arrays operating at millimeter and sub-millimeter ranges.

Bolocam (Glenn et al.  1998) is a new millimeter-wave camera which is going to operate from the CSO and from the future LMT/GTM 50 meter telescope at Sierra la Negra, Mexico. At the CSO 10 meter telescope this camera is going to have a 9' field of view, a spatial resolution of 43'' ($\lambda =$1.4 mm) and a sensitivity of $\sim$35 mJy/$\sqrt{({\rm Hz})}$.

The future of these systems lies not only with ground based telescopes, but also with satellite missions such as "Planck" and "FIRST". Ground and space-based platforms have distinctly different capabilities and limitations, and serve complementary roles. In particular, satellite missions allow extremely sensitive wide-angle surveys whereas ground based instruments can be more innovative and carry out detailed, high-resolution studies. This poster describes the main characteristics of Bolocam (Section ). The scientific goals of Bolocam and the cryogenic design and operation are shown in Section  and Section  respectively.

Bolocam is been developed and tested at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and at Caltech.

1999-01-20