The TACTIC atmospheric Cherenkov Imaging telescope
R. Koul, A.K. Tickoo, S.K. Kaul, S.R. Kaul, N. Kumar, K.K. Yadav, N., Bhatt, K. Venugopal, H.C. Goyal, M. Kothari, P. Chandra, R.C. Rannot, V.K., Dhar, M.K. Koul, R.K. Kaul, S. Kotwal, K. Chanchalani, S. Thoudam, N., Chouhan, M. Sharma, S. Bhattacharyya, S. Sahayanathan

TL;DR
The TACTIC telescope is a stable, reliable gamma-ray observatory with detailed subsystem performance and successful detection of cosmic sources like the Crab Nebula and active galactic nuclei, demonstrating its capability for long-term gamma-ray monitoring.
Contribution
This paper provides a comprehensive description of the TACTIC telescope's subsystems, calibration, and performance, including observational results and Monte Carlo simulations for the first time.
Findings
Detected steady gamma-ray signal from Crab Nebula above 1.2 TeV
Achieved sensitivity of ~5.0 sigma in 25 hours of observation
Successfully observed gamma-ray activity from Mrk 501 and Mrk 421
Abstract
The TACTIC -ray telescope, equipped with a light collector of area 9.5m and a medium resolution imaging camera of 349-pixels, has been in operation at Mt.Abu, India since 2001. This paper describes the main features of its various subsystems and its overall performance with regard to (a) tracking accuracy of its 2-axes drive system, (b) spot size of the light collector, (c) back-end signal processing electronics and topological trigger generation scheme, (d) data acquisition and control system and (e) relative and absolute gain calibration methodology. Using a trigger field of view of 1111 pixels ( 3.4), the telescope records a cosmic ray event rate of 2.5 Hz at a typical zenith angle of 15. Monte Carlo simulation results are also presented in the paper for comparing the expected performance of the telescope with…
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