LSW participation in The HESS project:
an Array of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes

HESS is a project for a next-generation system of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes for the investigation of cosmic gamma rays in the 100 GeV energy range. The name HESS stands for High Energy Stereoscopic System, and should also remind of Victor Hess , who received in 1936 the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of cosmic radiation. The acronym also emphasizes two main features of the proposed installation, namely the simultaneous observation of air showers with several (3 to 4) telescopes, under widely different viewing angles, and the combination of multiple (up to 16) telescopes to a large system to increase the effective detection area for gamma rays. The proposed system provides a detection threshold of about 40 GeV, full spectroscopic capability above 100 GeV, an angular resolution for individual showers of 0.1 degrees, and an energy resolution of about 20%. It will allow to explore gamma-ray sources with intensities at a level of a few thousands of the flux of the Crab nebula. HESS will be located in Namibia, near the Gamsberg, an area well known for its excellent optical quality. (Abridged introduction from HESS Home page)

The HESS project is run by a consortium of European and African institutions, lead by the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany. The Landessternwarte Heidelberg is a member of this consortium through the group of Dr. S. Wagner.

Heidelberg Conference on Gamma-Ray Astrophysics