The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory: First Light

The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory is under construction at Sierra Negra in the state of Puebla in Mexico. Operation began in September 2012, with the first 30 out of the final 300 water Cherenkov detectors deployed and in data acquisition. The HAWC Observatory is designed to record particle air showers from gamma rays and cosmic rays with TeV energies. Though the detector is only 10\% complete, HAWC is already the world's largest water Cherenkov detector in the TeV band. In this presentation, I will summarize the performance of the detector to date and discuss preliminary observations of cosmic-ray and gamma-ray sources. I will also describe deployment plans for the remainder of the detector and outline prospects for TeV observations in the coming year.