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PoGOLite (The Polarised Gamma-ray Observer) is a balloon-borne astroparticle physics experiment which will measure polarisation in hard X-rays and soft gamma-rays. It is sensitive to photons with an energy range of 25-80 keV. PoGOLite contains 217 phoswich detector cells (PDC) which are surrounded by a ring of side anticoincidence shield (SAS) detectors. The pathfinder instrument containing 61 PDCs and 30 SAS detectors is scheduled to be launched from the Esrange facility in northern Sweden during summer 2011. The flight will be the first circumpolar balloon flight in the northern hemisphere and is expected to take 17-25 days.

The main targets of the pathfinder experiment will be the Crab pulsar and nebula, and the Cygnus X-1 high mass X-ray binary system, which are two of the brightest objects in the energy range of PoGOLite.