Wide-field sub-millimetre imaging with SCUBA-2

SCUBA-2 is a wide-field camera due to replace the Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) on the James Clerk Maxwell telescope in 2006. Unlike previous sub-millimetre imagers which have used discrete bolometers, SCUBA-2 has two DC-coupled, monolithic, filled arrays with a total of ˜10,000 bolometers. It will offer simultaneous imaging of a 50 arcmin2 field of view at wavelengths of 850 and 450 microns. SCUBA-2 is expected to have a huge impact on the study of galaxy formation and evolution in the early Universe as well as star and planet formation in our own Galaxy. Mapping the sky to the same S/N up to 1000 times faster than SCUBA, it will also act as a pathfinder for the new submillimetre interferometers such as ALMA. We describe SCUBA-2's unique capabilities and their expected impact on sub-millimetre astronomy and give an update on the status of the instrument