GAMMA-RAY ASTRONOMY WITH THE HAWC OBSERVATORY

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory is a wide field-of-view gamma-ray detector, sensitive to primary energies between 50 GeV and 100 TeV. The array is being built at an altitude of 4,100 m on the Sierra Negra volcano in Puebla, Mexico. With a duty cycle close to 100% and a daily coverage of ~ 8 sr of the sky above it, HAWC is ideally suited to detect bright transient events at TeV energies such as gamma-ray bursts or flares from active galactic nuclei. The array will provide an unbiased survey of gamma-ray sources at energies above 100 GeV and probe the origins of astrophysical photon emission at the highest energies. The modular design of HAWC made it possible to start data taking in September 2012 with a partial array. Operation continues while the number of water Cherenkov detectors is growing, which allowed a smooth transition to full scientific operation with 111 detectors in August 2013. The completion of the full array with 300 detectors is planned for the summer of 2014. In these proceedings, we will give an overview of the status and performance of the HAWC observatory and discuss observation strategies for various gamma-ray phenomena.