GP-40

A TeV Observatory Ideal for Gamma-Ray Bursts

Brenda Dingus for the Milagro Collaboration

Milagro is a TeV observatory with a field of view of $\sim$ 1 sr that operates 24 hours/day. On average  3 BATSE-detected bursts are within Milagro's field of view each month. This new technique for TeV astronomy was proven with a smaller detector, Milagrito, which operated from Feb 1997 to April 1998. Milagrito observed Mrk 501 (Atkins et al. Ap J in press), the shadow of the moon, and searched 54 BATSE-detected bursts for TeV emission (McEnery et al this symposium). Milagro began operation within the last few months and should have over a factor of 5 greater sensitivity than Milagrito.