The Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS)
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. Detailed simulations of the array's performance are presented elsewhere at this meeting. VERITAS will operate primarily as a γ-ray observatory in the 50 GeV to 50 TeV range for the study of active galaxies, supernova remnants, pulsars and gamma ray bursts.
- Publication:
-
26th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC26), Volume 5
- Pub Date:
- 1999
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.astro-ph/9907248
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/9907248
- Bibcode:
- 1999ICRC....5..280B
- Keywords:
-
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 4 pages, 2 figures, to be published in the proceedings of the 26th ICRC (Salt Lake City, 1999)