The MAGIC telescope for gamma-ray astronomy above 30 GeV

The MAGIC telescope is presently at its commissioning phase at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) on the island of La Palma. MAGIC will become the largest ground-based gamma ray telescope in the world, being sensitive to photons of energies as low as 30 GeV. The spectral range between 10 and 300 GeV remains to date mostly unexplored. Observations in this region of the spectrum are expected to provide key data for the understanding of a wide variety of astrophysical phenomena belonging to the so-called "non-thermal Universe", like the processes in the nuclei of active galaxies, the radiation mechnisms of pulsars and supernova remnants, and the enigmatic gamma-ray bursts. An overview of the telescope and its Physics goals is presented