The MAGIC telescope, presently at its commissioning phase, will become fully operative by the end of 2003. Placed at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) on the island of La Palma, MAGIC is the largest among new generation ground-based gamma ray telescopes, and will reach an energy threshold as low as 30 GeV. The range of the electromagnetic spectrum between 10 and 250 GeV remains to date mostly unexplored. Observations in this energy region 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 mechanisms of pulsars and supernova remnants, and the enigmatic gamma-ray bursts. An overview of the telescope and its physics goals is presented.
