VERITAS

VERITAS, the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System, is a ground-based gamma-ray observatory at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in southern Arizona. It consists of an array of four 12-metre optical reflectors and observes gamma rays in the GeV to TeV energy range. The array uses the imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope technique, recording the extensive air showers that gamma rays produce in the Earth's atmosphere; viewing each shower from several positions gives the highest sensitivity in the 100 GeV to 10 TeV band, with response from 50 GeV up to 50 TeV. The reflector design follows that of the earlier Whipple 10-metre gamma-ray telescope on the same site, but is larger and has a longer focal length for better control of optical aberrations. VERITAS was completed in 2007; its larger collection area and higher energy coverage complement the Large Area Telescope of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

Where it is

VERITAS is a observatory near Madera Canyon, in Santa Cruz County. It is one of the observatories in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.

How this ranking was reached

No official visitor count is published for VERITAS, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.

Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.

Mentioned in

• Arizona protects its night sky in one set of places and uses it in another — Eight Arizona attractions hold International Dark Sky Park status and all eight publish visitor counts; twelve working observatories publish none.

Sources

• Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
• Coordinates and designations: Wikidata(opens in a new tab)
• County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates
• Official site: http://veritas.sao.arizona.edu(opens in a new tab)

Record last verified 2026-08-12.