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The prototype for the VERITAS imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope array was successfully operated in southern Arizona between September 2003 and April 2004. The prototype consisted of 86 mirror facets mounted centrally on a 12-meter dish, which was built to accommodate up to 350 facets when converted to a complete VERITAS telescope. The camera consisted of half of the full 499 pixel camera. The signal and trigger electronics were nearly identical to those that will be used for the individual VERITAS array telescopes. By observing the Crab and Mrk421, as well as performing a variety of tests, the characteristics of the instrument were evaluated. The prototype met all performance expectations and served as a valuable test bed for the current design, as well as for the construction and operation of VERITAS. This prototype instrument is now being upgraded to a complete VERITAS telescope that will be operated during the construction of the full VERITAS array. The array is expected to be operational by November 2006. © 2005 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Whipple Collaboration has been carrying out an upgrade program, GRANITE III, on the 10m telescope atop Mt. Hopkins. The 3 year program, 1996 through 1999, has involved a large field-of-view camera, a hardware pattern recognition trigger, and finally a small pixel camera. Results of the first and second stage of the program indicate that a large field-of-view yield an increased collection area for cosmic-ray triggers and the hardware pattern trigger reduces the energy threshold of the telescope by greatly suppressing night sky accidental triggers over a simple multiplicity coincidence trigger. The final phase of the program, being completed during the summer and fall of 1999, will be the installation of a small pixel camera. The pixel size of ∼0°.12 will yield the lowest threshold energy at which the 10 m Whipple telescope has ever operated. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overview of the current status and scientific goals of VERITAS, a proposed hexagonal array of seven 10 m aperture imaging Cherenkov telescopes, is provided. The selected site is close to Mt. Hopkins, the site of the Whipple Observatory, in Arizona. Each telescope, of 12 m focal length, will 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 γ-ray observatory in the 50 GeV to 50 TeV range for the study of active galaxies, supernova remnants, pulsars and gamma-ray bursts. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]