TeV Atmospheric Cerenkov Telescope with Imaging Camera (TACTIC)

Gamma ray telescope array TACTIC set up by the division at Mt. Abu, Rajasthan has been deployed for the observation of various putative TeV gamma ray sources since the year 2000. The TACTIC telescope array comprises a 349-pixel imaging telescope located at the center of an equilateral triangle of 20m side and 3 vertex elements positioned at the corners of the triangle. Each of the vertex elements deploys a 29 pixel camera which is being presently optimized to detect variations in the Cerenkov light pool for the improvement in the Quality Factor. In this mode of operation the master trigger based on topological considerations is generated by the Imaging element. Operating at an energy threshold of ~ 1 TeV the telescope has picked up gamma ray flares from two extragalactic objects Mkn 421 and Mkn 501. Recently the telescope was optimized and a gamma ray signal at a high statistical significance of 11 s was detected from the Crab Nebula in 103 hr of on-source observations during Dec-Feb (2003-04). The energy spectrum of the Crab Nebula has also been determined in the 1-16 TeV energy range.

Some Pictures of TACTIC Telescope :

	4 Element TACTIC Telescope Array.
	TACTIC Imaging element.
	TACTIC Vertex Element.
	Front-end of the Data Acquisition node of The TACTIC Imaging Element.
	Back-end Instrumentation View of The TACTIC Imaging element.

Computer display of the on-line Drive system controller.