We present a new furnace design which is based on a tube furnace: primarily for ceramics or catalysis research where the sample is heated in air, but at temperatures of up to 1200 degrees C. The design and specifications of this furnace are presented. High temperature in situ studies of glass-ceramic systems would greatly benefit from combined QEXAFS/XRD studies, where it is possible to study the changes in the near environment of dilute nucleating agents and correlate these changes to changes that occur in long range order. A particular example is a glass-ceramic based on the stoichiometry of the mineral cordierite doped with 0.8 wt% Cr2O3, which acts as a nucleating agent for devitrification of the glass upon heat treatment.