The Transition Region and Coronal Explorer

The Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE), launched 1 April 1998, will have at the time of this meeting been in orbit for just over 8 months. In that time, the instrument will have taken over 500,000 exposures of the sun in ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet wavelengths, will have completed three-forths of the nominal mission and will be approaching the end of the first eclipse season. The TRACE telescope is unique in its ability to observe in UV and EUV wavelengths at high cadence with unprecedented resolution. We present a review of the TRACE instrument and show current observations and results. We discuss the performance of the instrument in terms of observational capabilities, sensitivity, calibration, effects of aging on the instrument, CCD effects, and contamination effects.