•A new fast divertor IR system was put into operation on the COMPASS tokamak. The system provides in-situ calibration possibility using a special heated divertor tile.•Radial profiles of the divertor heat flux are routinely measured for both the inner and the outer divertor target with spatial resolution ∼1 mm and frequency up to ∼60 kHz.•First experimental divertor heat flux measurements using the new system were successfully performed in both L-mode and H-mode. A new fast divertor infra-red thermography system was put into operation on COMPASS. It provides full radial coverage of the bottom open divertor with pixel resolution ∼0.6–1.1 mm/px on the target surface and temporal resolution better than 20 μs. The system consists of fast IR camera TELOPS Fast-IR 2K placed in a magnetic shielding box, a positionable holder, a 1 m long IR endoscope consisting of 14 Ge and Si lenses securing off-axis view from an upper inner vertical port and a special graphite divertor tile optimized for IR thermography. The tile is equipped with a heating system allowing tile preheating up to 250 °C. Embedded thermoresistors and a calibration target (a deep narrow hole acting as a black body radiator) allows in-situ calibration of the system including estimation of the target surface emissivity. Furthermore, a roof-top shaped structure on top of the tile increases magnetic field incidence angles above 3 degrees. Laboratory tests of the system performed during its commissioning are presented. The global transmission of the optical system was found to be τ ≈ 40–50%. Poor spatial resolution compared to the design value was observed. Too large surface error of individual lenses was identified as the main cause and re-manufacturing of the most critical lens was suggested. First experimental results obtained using the IR system are presented: divertor heat flux profiles in L-mode with the heat flux decay length λqomp=2.1−3.3 mm and average H-mode heat flux profiles in an inter-ELM period and during an ELM heat flux maximum with λqomp≈0.6 mm and λqomp≈6.7 mm, respectively.