This transition became possible when the atmospheric Cherenkov imaging technique gained the capability of distinguishing between hadron-initiated showers and those of photon origin. The proceedings appropriately begin with a review of the Cherenkov technique by the principal pioneer of the field of TeV gamma-ray astronomy, Trevor Weekes, this year's winner of the Rossi Prize. Weekes provides a nice history of the field, culminating in the first light from the Crab Nebula as seen by the Whipple Observatory in 1989. For instrumental experts, the paper of Fegan provides a discussion of ACT instrumentation of a highly technical nature. Issues of stereoscopic versus monocular telescopes and the possibilities for wide-angle Cherenkov experiments are discussed in the presentations of Chadwick et al. and Lorenz.
Several papers address upcoming and planned experiments.
Spectroscopic aspects in the MeV energy range are emphasized in the presentation of von Ballmoos. The current status of observations of sources such as pulsar nebulae and blazars, and upper limits to TeV emission from X-ray binaries, are nicely summarized in the papers of Kifune and Lamb. Hurley discusses the potential for TeV detections of gamma-ray bursts, whose projected optimal TeV fluxes fall below current ACT sensitivity thresholds. Just over half the volume is devoted to the interpretative and theoretical side of the TeV astrophysics field. These include both galactic and extragalactic sources of TeV gamma-rays.