PILOT (the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope) is a proposed 2.5-m optical/infrared telescope to be located at Dome C on the Antarctic plateau. Conditions at Dome C are known to be exceptional for astronomy. The seeing (above ∼30 m height), coherence time, and isoplanatic angle are all twice as good as at typical mid-latitude sites, while the water-vapour column, and the atmosphere and telescope thermal emission are all an order of magnitude better. These conditions enable a unique scientific capability for PILOT, which is addressed in this series of papers. The current paper presents an overview of the optical and instrumentation suite for PILOT and its expected performance, a summary of the key science goals and observational approach for the facility, a discussion of the synergies between the science goals for PILOT and other telescopes, and a discussion of the future of Antarctic astronomy. Paper II and Paper III present details of the science projects divided, respectively, between the distant Universe (i.e. studies of first light, and the assembly and evolution of structure) and the nearby Universe (i.e. studies of Local Group galaxies, the Milky Way, and the Solar System).

PILOT (the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope) is a proposed 2.5-m optical/infrared telescope to be located at Dome C on the Antarctic plateau. The atmospheric conditions at Dome C deliver a high sensitivity, high photometric precision, wide-field, high spatial resolution, and high-cadence imaging capability to the PILOT telescope. These capabilities enable a unique scientific potential for PILOT, which is addressed in this series of papers. The current paper presents a series of projects dealing with the distant (redshift >1) Universe, that have been identified as key science drivers for the PILOT facility. The potential for PILOT to detect the first populations of stars to form in the early Universe, via infrared projects searching for pair-instability supernovae and gamma-ray burst afterglows, is investigated. Two projects are proposed to examine the assembly and evolution of structure in the Universe: an infrared survey searching for the first evolved galaxies at high redshift, and an optical survey aimed at characterising moderate-redshift galaxy clusters. Finally, a large-area weak-lensing survey and a program to obtain supernova infrared light-curves are proposed to examine the nature and evolution of dark energy and dark matter.

PILOT (the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope) is a proposed 2.5-m optical/infrared telescope to be located at Dome C on the Antarctic plateau. The atmospheric conditions at Dome C deliver a high sensitivity, high photometric precision, wide-field, high spatial resolution, and high-cadence imaging capability to the PILOT telescope. These capabilities enable a unique scientific potential for PILOT, which is addressed in this series of papers. The current paper presents a series of projects dealing with the nearby Universe that have been identified as key science drivers for the PILOT facility. Several projects are proposed that examine stellar populations in nearby galaxies and stellar clusters in order to gain insight into the formation and evolution processes of galaxies and stars. A series of projects will investigate the molecular phase of the Galaxy and explore the ecology of star formation, and investigate the formation processes of stellar and planetary systems. Three projects in the field of exoplanet science are proposed: a search for free-floating low-mass planets and dwarfs, a program of follow-up observations of gravitational microlensing events, and a study of infrared light-curves for previously discovered exoplanets. Three projects are also proposed in the field of planetary and space science: optical and near-infrared studies aimed at characterising planetary atmospheres, a study of coronal mass ejections from the Sun, and a monitoring program searching for small-scale Low Earth Orbit satellite debris items.

We present deep, wide-field, Ks-band (2.14-μm) images towards 87 southern massive star formation regions traced by methanol maser emission. Using point-spread function fitting, we generate 2.14-μm point source catalogues (PSCs) towards each of the regions. For the regions between 10° < l < 350° and |b| < 1, we match the 2.14-μm sources with the GLIMPSE point source catalogue to generate a combined 2.14- to 8.0-μm point source catalogue. We provide this data for the astronomical community to utilise in studies of the stellar content of embedded clusters.

We study the phase mixing and dissipation of a packet of standing shear Alfvén waves localized in a region with non-uniform Alfvén background velocity. We investigate the validity of the exponential damping law in time, exp (–At3), presented by Heyvaerts & Priest (1983) for different ranges of Lundquist, S, and Reynolds, R, numbers. Our numerical results shows that it is valid for (R,S) ≥ 107.

The Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) has been used to determine positions for many southern methanol maser sites, with accuracy better than 1 arcsec. The results are presented here as a catalogue of more than 350 distinct sites, some of them new discoveries, and many others with positional precision 10-times better than existing published values. Clusters of 2 or 3 sites are occasionally found to account for single previously listed sources. This in turn reveals that the velocity range for each individual site is sometimes smaller than that of the originally tabulated (blended) source. Only a handful of examples then remain with a velocity range of more than 16 km s−1 at a single compact (less than 2 arcsec) site. The precise methanol positions now allow apparent coincidences with OH masers to be confidently accepted or rejected; this has led to the important conclusion that, where a 1665-MHz OH maser lies in a massive star formation region, at more than 80 percent of the OH sites there is a precisely coincident methanol maser. The methanol precision achieved here will also allow clear comparisons with likely associated IR sources when the next generation of far-IR surveys produce precise positions.

The PULSE@Parkes project has been designed to monitor the rotation of radio pulsars over time spans of days to years. The observations are obtained using the Parkes 64-m and 12-m radio telescopes by Australian and international high school students. These students learn the basis of radio astronomy and undertake small projects with their observations. The data are fully calibrated and obtained with the state-of-the-art pulsar hardware available at Parkes. The final data sets are archived and are currently being used to carry out studies of 1) pulsar glitches, 2) timing noise, 3) pulse profile stability over long time scales and 4) the extreme nulling phenomenon. The data are also included in other projects such as gamma-ray observatory support and for the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array project. In this paper we describe the current status of the project and present the first scientific results from the Parkes 12-m radio telescope. We emphasise that this project offers a straightforward means to enthuse high school students and the general public about radio astronomy while obtaining scientifically valuable data sets.