VERITAS: HAWC's Neighbour to the North

Abstract

This paper summarizes a presentation given on the occasion of the inauguration of the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-ray Observatory in Puebla, Mexico in March 2015. The inauguration of a new facility for the study of astrophysical gamma-rays provides an excellent opportunity to review the technical evolution and the scientific achievements of VERITAS (the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) since its own inauguration in 2007. HAWC and VERITAS are separated by only 14 degrees in longitude, and so can view much of the same sky at the same time. In combination with other ground-based facilities, and with the instruments onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, VERITAS and HAWC will give an unprecedented view of the gamma-ray sky. We provide an overview of VERITAS, and discuss the complementarity of the two observatories for future gamma-ray observations.