Preliminary results of the CREAM-III Cherenkov Camera

Precise measurements of cosmic rays in an energy range from 10 eV to 10 eV, over the elemental range from hydrogen to iron, allow one to study the mechanism of acceleration of primary cosmic rays up to very high energy, to characterise their possible sources, and to clarify their interactions with the interstellar medium. For this purpose a Cherenkov imager, CherCam (Cherenkov Camera), has been designed and built for the CREAM (Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass) balloon-borne experiment. CherCam is a proximity focused imager optimised for charge measurements with a constant resolution through the whole considered range of nuclear charges. The detector was implemented for the first time in the third flight of the CREAM payload, which was carried out in the Antarctic Summer 07/08. The instrument performance during this flight and charge reconstruction results from the on-going data analysis are presented.