Status and selected results of the H.E.S.S. system of air Cherenkov telescopes

Very high energy gamma-ray astronomy has matured in recent years with the rapid developments in the construction and operation of stereoscopic systems of imaging air Cherenkov telescopes. The H.E.S.S. (High Energy Stereoscopic System) array located in Namibia is a system of latest generation telescopes which has in its complete form become operational in December 2003. Among the results obtained with the initial data taken with the H.E.S.S. telescopes during the commissioning of the experiment is the spatially resolved gamma-ray image of the shell type supernova remnant RXJ 1713.7-396 (G347.5-0.5), the detection of variable gamma-ray emission during periastron passage from the binary system PSR B1259-630/SS 2883, the serendipitous discovery of an extended source in the same field of view covered during the observation of the binary system, and the detection of gamma-rays from the direction of the Galactic center.