Methods of gravitational wave detection in the VIRGO Interferometer

The gravitational wave detector VIRGO is in the final commissioning phase and some preliminary data has already been acquired. The aim of VIRGO is to directly detect gravitational waves emitted by compact objects at the time of coalescence and by other astrophysical sources. Here we report on the present sensitivity for detecting these sources and what we will achieve in the near future. We also discuss some details of our data analysis methods and we show some preliminary results related to the fraction of the Universe that we can observe.