Instrumentation for the Gran Telescopio Canarias

The 10-m Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) is currently under construction at the Observatory of the Roque de los Muchachos on the Spanish Island of La Palma (see GTC web page: http://gtc.iac.es). Since the end of 1997, an intense effort has been made by the GTC Project Office (PO) and various institutions in the partner countries to support an instrumentation program that will provide the users with a rapid scientific return, once the GTC enters operation. The Day One instruments are OSIRIS (lead by Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, IAC), Canari-Cam (University of Florida) and ELMER (PO). These instruments, their expected performance and current status are summarised in this contribution. There are many scientific programs connected with the star formation which have been given high priority, and will take advantage of the capabilities of this first generation of instruments. The second generation of GTC instruments has been started with EMIR, currently in the Preliminary Design (PD) phase, and lead by the IAC. EMIR is expected to be in operation at the end of 2006. In the near future the GTC development program will begin additional instruments and/or upgrades to the existing ones, with the hope that the GTC and its instruments become an powerful tool for XXI century Astrophysics.