This proposal requests funds to support the routine operation of the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) for 2006-2009. VERITAS is an array of four 12 m aperture telescopes for gamma-ray astronomy in the very high energy (VHE) 50 GeV to 50 TeV range. The VERITAS Collaboration is composed of ten groups, seven in the US, and one each in Canada, the UK and Ireland. The development and construction of VERITAS has been supported by the NSF, the DoE, the Smithsonian Institution and by substantial contributions from the UK's Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and by Enterprise Ireland.
The VERITAS telescope array will employ the imaging atmospheric Cherenkov technique which was pioneered at the Whipple Observatory's 10 m telescope. VERITAS will achieve an order of magnitude better flux sensitivity than the previous generation of VHE gamma-ray telescopes and will be the most sensitive VHE gamma-ray observatory in the Northern hemisphere. At this time, all four telescopes have been deployed at a temporary site at the Whipple Observatory Base Camp; these will be operated, in an engineering phase with all four telescopes simultaneously collecting data, through the 2007-2008 observing seasons, before moving to a permanent site.
