The Best Studied Crab in Astronomy: Searching for Variability in VHE Emission from the Crab Nebula

The Crab Nebula is the remnant of a powerful stellar explosion first observed in 1054 AD and has been extremely well studied for decades. previous very high energy (VHE); GeV) studies have observed no variability in the nebula flux making the Crab a standard reference tool for gamma-ray telescopes. As part of the VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) collaboration, we continue monitoring the nebula’s flux to understand the VERITAS telescopes and physical processes occurring within the nebula. We are analyzing over 80 hours of data from 2017 and 2018 from VERITAS Collaboration, developing and adding to a light curve that includes data since 2007. Our analysis of the 2017-2018 combined dataset determined a spectral index of -2.324 plus or minus 0.005489 and fitting the light curve with a constant function yields a mean integrated flux above 200 GeV of, which is significantly lower than a 2007-2016 dataset