Operating performance of the gamma-ray Cherenkov telescope : An end-to-end Schwarzschild-Couder telescope prototype for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Cherenkov Telescope Array(CTA) consortium aims to build the next-generation ground-based very-high-energy gamma-rayobservatory. The array will feature different sizes of telescopesallowing it to cover a wide gamma-rayenergy band from about 20 GeV to above 100 TeV. The highest energies, above 5 TeV, will be covered by a large number of Small-Sized Telescopes(SSTs) with a field-of-view of around 9°. The Gamma-rayCherenkov Telescope(GCT), based on Schwarzschild–Couder dual-mirror optics, is one of the three proposed SST designs. The GCT is described in this contribution and the first images of Cherenkov showers obtained using the telescopeand its camera are presented. These were obtained in November 2015 in Meudon, France.