A new detector system for single shot measurement of electron temperature and density profiles in a magnetically confined plasma has been developed. Preliminary results have been obtained with this multipoint Thomson scattering diagnostic on Torus II, a high beta tokamak. It has a density range of 2×1013cm−3≲ne≲5×1014cm−3in the preionization phase and 5×1014cm−3≲ne≲2×1015cm−3in the tokamak phase. Electron temperatures range fromTe≳6 eV in the preionization phase toTe≲80 eV in the tokamak phase. The detector used is a multianode microchannel plate (MCP) with a 25‐mm‐diam multialkali photocathode. A 10×10 array of anodes collects the current, which has been amplified by as much as 106. Each anode is independent, so the MCP can be viewed as a parallel array of 100 independent photomultiplier tubes.