  Taking advantage of the advances in array detector technology, an imaging
polarimeter (IMPOL) has been constructed for measuring linear polarization in
the wavelength band from 400-800 nm. It makes use of a Wollaston prism as the
analyser to measure simultaneously the two orthogonal polarization components
that define a Stoke's parameter. An achromatic half-wave plate is used to
rotate the plane of polarization with respect to the axis of the analyser so
that the second Stoke's parameter also can be determined. With a field of view
correponding to about 30x30 sq. mm for a 1.2 m, f/13 telescope, a sensitive,
liquid-nitrogen cooled CCD camera as the detector and a built-in acquisition
and guidance unit, the instrument can be used for studying stellar fields or
extended objects with an angular resolution close to 2 arcsec. The instrumental
polarization is less than 0.05% and the accuracies of measurement are primarily
limited by photon noise for typical observations.
