Optical SETI with Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes

The idea of searching for optical signals from extraterrestrial civilizations has become increasingly popular over the last five years, with dedicated projects at a number of observatories. The method relies on the detection of a brief (∼ few ns), intense light pulse with fast photon detectors. Ground-based gamma-ray telescopes such as the Whipple 10m, providing a large mirror area and equipped with an array of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), are ideal instruments for this kind of observation if the background of cosmic-ray events can be rejected. We report here on a method for searching for optical SETI pulses, using background discrimination techniques based on the image shape.