IIHE topical seminar: Observations of the Crab Nebula with VERITAS and the Cherenkov Telescope Array

Imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) work by imaging light from gamma-ray showers in the Earth's atmosphere. This talk will contain two parts: The first part of this talk will discuss my work on observations of the Crab nebula with the current generation VERITAS, a current generation IACT. The talk will discuss the extent, variability, and energy spectrum of the Crab Nebula. The extent is particularly interesting as it may be possible to constrain theoretical models of emission from the crab by placing limits on the extent of the nebula. The second part of the talk will discuss my contributions the next generation IACT, the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). CTA is envisioned as an array comprised several different sizes of telescopes. The Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope is a medium sized (9.5 m) two-mirror design for CTA. The general design of CTA and the Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope as well as my contributions to the focal plane instrumentation will be discussed.