Gamma-ray astronomy - An experiment to detect y-rays of energy above 1000 GeV from Cygnus X-3

High energy y-rays, of energies greater than 1012 eV, have been detected from Cyg X-3 (Vladimirski et al. 1973; Mukanov et al. 1979). In both experiments, 1.5 m diameter flux collectors were used to detect optical Cherenkov radiation from the small electron showers in the atmosphere. The background radiation due to cosmic ray protons was rejected in both cases by performing drift scans across the position of the object.