Performance of the STACEE Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope

The Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment (STACEE) is located at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. The field of solar tracking mirrors (heliostats) around a central receiver tower is used to direct Cherenkov light from atmospheric showers onto secondary mirrors on the tower, which in turn image the light onto cameras of photomultiplier tubes. The STACEE Collaboration has previously reported a detection of the Crab Nebula with approximately 7 standard deviation significance, using 32 heliostats (STACEE-32). This result demonstrates both the viability of the technique and the suitability of the site. We are in the process of completing an upgrade to 48 heliostats (STACEE-48) en route to an eventual configuration using 64 heliostats (STACEE-64) in early 2001. In this paper, we summarize the results obtained on the sensitivity of STACEE-32 and our expectations for STACEE-48 and STACEE-64.