The Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS)
T.C. Weekes, S. Criswell, J. Grindlay, K. Harris, P. Kaaret, V.V.
Vassiliev
S.M. Bradbury, I.H. Bond, A.M. Hillas, J. Knapp, J. Lloyd-Evans,
H.J. Rose
A.C. Breslin, D.J. Fegan, B. McKernan, J. Quinn
J.H. Buckley
D.A. Carter-Lewis, M. Catanese, F. Krennrich, S. LeBohec
B.L. Dingus, D. Kieda, M. Salamon
J.P. Finley, J. Gaidos, R.W. Lessard, G.H. Sembroski
G. Hermann, D. Müller, R. Ong, S. Swordy
J.J. Quenby, G. Rochester, T. Sumner
Abstract
We give an overview of the current status and scientific goals of
VERITAS, a proposed hexagonal array of seven 10 m aperture imaging
Cherenkov telescopes. The selected site is Montosa Canyon (1390 m
a.s.l.) at the Whipple Observatory, Arizona. Each telescope, of 12 m
focal length, will initially be equipped with a 499 element
photomultiplier camera covering a 3.5 degree field of view. A central
station will initiate the readout of 500 MHz FADCs upon receipt of
multiple telescope triggers. The minimum detectable flux sensitivity
will be 0.5% of the Crab Nebula flux at 200 GeV.
VERITAS will operate primarily as a g-ray observatory in the 50
GeV to 50 TeV range for the study of active galaxies, supernova
remnants, pulsars and gamma ray bursts.
File translated from TEX by TTH, version 2.32.
On 16 Jul 1999, 09:19.