The JCMT Legacy Survey (JLS) is an ambitious programme of independent surveys to study our Galaxy and universe in the submillimetre (λ = 450 − 850 μm) from the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. With its scientific breadth and unique spectral window, it is clear that the JLS will have a significant impact on star formation studies in the near future and beyond. Its complementarity with other surveys (e.g. Spitzer, Herschel) will make the JLS a very valuable resource for multi-wavelength studies for low and high-mass star formation across the Milky Way. The JLS is currently in its second year of operation.

High-mass star formation is manifestly a phenomenon of the Galactic Plane. The process begins with pre-stellar cores, evolves to proto-stellar objects, and culminates in massive main-sequence stars. Because massive young stellar objects are deeply embedded, the radio, sub-mm, and far/mid-infrared spectral windows are the most revealing. Galactic plane surveys at these wavelengths trace hot and cold molecular gas, interstellar masers, warm dust, and ionized gas that are present during star formation.

We present preliminary results of a study to determine the star formation rate of the Galaxy using a census of young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Spitzer/GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL surveys, which cover nearly 300 square degrees of the Galactic mid-plane. We find a value of 1.7 M⊙/yr, consistent with independent estimates.

The methanol multi-beam (MMB) survey has produced the largest and most complete catalogue of Galactic 6.7-GHz methanol masers to date. 6.7-GHz methanol masers are exclusively associated with high-mass star formation, and as such provide invaluable insight into the Galactic distribution and properties of high-mass star formation regions. I present the statistical properties of the MMB catalogue and, through the calculation of kinematic distances, investigate the resolution of distance ambiguities and explore the Galactic distribution.

We present the results of a Galaxy-wide survey for young massive stars still in the process of formation. Our data are consistent with a model in which the stars form through accretion disks with the overall Galactic star formation rate being 3 M⊙ per year.

One of the currently most disputed issues in Star Formation is the timeline of the whole process. Is it a “slow” process of cloud assembly which, mediated by magnetic fields, evolve toward turbulence-supported clumps which are eventually super-critical to collapse, e.g. McKee & Tan (2003)? Or do clumps originate in already super-critical state in the post-shock regions of large-scale Galactic converging flows, e.g. Hartmann et al. (2001) with a rapid collapse in a crossing time or so (Elmegreen 2000)?

A pan-chromatic 1μm-1mm continuum view of cluster forming regions in their early stages offers access to the most massive members longward of 5-10μm, as well as the low-mass members which instead dominate the emission in the near-IR, offering an interesting potential in stimulating advances in theoretical modelling of clustered star formation, its history and rate.

We highlight the IPHAS Data Releases and how access to the primary data products has been implemented through use of standard virtual observatory (VO) publishing interfaces as provided by the Astro- Grid system. The IPHAS Early Data release (EDR), is a photometric catalogue of more than 200 million unique objects, coupled with associated image data covering more than 1000 square degrees in three colours. These data represent the largest data sets to date published solely through Virtual Observatory interfaces.

Energy and mass interchanges in the interstellar medium are driven by the life-cycle of stars. They appear in our own Galaxy over a broad range of scales, from point-like injection from stars to global input on the scale of spiral density waves. Understanding this Galactic Ecosystem requires observations of the different phases of the ISM over this large angular dynamic range. The Canadian Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS) is a project to combine radio, millimeter, and infrared surveys of the Galactic plane, providing arcminute-scale images of all major components of the interstellar medium over a large portion of the Galactic disk.

The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) is a 1.1 mm continuum survey that has detected more than 8300 clumps over a 170 square degree survey area in the Galactic plane. The full power of these data is realised only when considering the full complement of data spanning millimetre through x-ray wavelengths.

Extensive surveys of the Milky Way have provided a global view of the population of planetary nebulae in the Milky Way. Their chemical, dynamical, and morphological properties, the link with their red giant progenitors and white dwarf descendants, and the implications on our understanding of the chemical evolution of the Galaxy, are discussed.

Simulations of the Galactic pulsar population are reviewed. These include snapshot and time-dependent models of normal pulsars as well as binary and milli-second pulsars.

The H.E.S.S. Galactic Plane Survey (GPS) has revealed a large number of Galactic Sources, including Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWN), Supernova Remnants (SNRs), giant molecular clouds, star formation regions and compact binary systems, as well as a number of unidentified objects, or dark sources, for which no obvious counterparts at other wavelengths have yet been found. We will review the latest results from the GPS observations and discuss the most interesting cases.

We study the structure of the Galaxy in the hard X-ray energy band (¿20 keV) using data from the INTEGRAL observatory. The increased sensitivity of the survey and the very deep observations performed during six years of the observatory operation allow us to detect about a hundred new sources. This significantly enlarges the sample of hard X-ray sources in the Galactic disk and bulge in a comparison with the previous studies.

The nature of the Galactic Ridge X-Ray Emission (GRXE) has been under scientific debate since its discovery more than 30 years ago. It is observed as extended emission along the Galactic disk. The question was: is GRXE truly diffuse or is it composed from a large number of unresolved point sources? Using near-infrared Galaxy maps measured with the DIRBE experiment and data from the INTEGRAL observatory, we show that the galactic background in the energy range 20-60 keV originates from the stellar population of the Galaxy, which is in contrast to the diffuse nature believed before (Krivonos et al., 2007). Here we show preliminary results of studying the transition region from hard X-rays to gamma diffuse background of the Galaxy, revealing the broad band picture of Galactic Background emission.

By isolating the red clump giant population in the color-magnitude diagrams and inverting their star counts, we can obtain directly the density distribution of the old stellar population along the line of sight. We have applied this method to several near infrared surveys and obtained information on the disc, bulge and long bar. The disc is well fitted by an exponential distribution in both the galactocentric distance and height, flared and warped in the outer parts, and with a deficit of stars in the inner in-plane regions. The long bar occupies these in-plane regions within R < 3.9 kpc, with approximate dimensions of 7.8 kpc × 1.2 kpc × 0.2 kpc and a position angle of 40-45 deg. The bulge is a triaxial structure, possibly boxy, thicker and shorter than the long bar and with position angle of 10-30 deg.

Distances to a large sample of long period variables are derived using a PL-relation and a 3D model for the reddening. Their use as a tracer of galactic structure is discussed.

We present a photometric analysis of the properties of asymptotic giant branch stars identified in the INT Photometric H-alpha Survey (IPHAS) of the northern Galactic plane. Follow-up spectroscopy has revealed that the IPHAS (r - Ha) colour is a valuable diagnostic of the photospheric C/O ratio, and may be used to identify hundreds of carbon and S-type stars.

We have undertaken a campaign to expand the census of WRs throughout the Galaxy using the 2MASS and Spitzer/GLIMPSE surveys. Free-free emission generated within the ion-dense winds of WRs generates a significant infrared excess which forms the basis of an excellent criterion for photometrically selecting WRs from the stellar field.

The Isaac Newton Photometric H-Alpha Survey (IPHAS) provides (r′-Hα)-(r′-i′) colors, which can be used to select AV0-5 Main Sequence star candidates (age~20-200 Myr). By combining a sample of 23050 IPHAS-selected A-type stars with 2MASS, GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL photometry we searched for mid-infrared excesses attributable to dusty circumstellar disks. Positional cross-correlation yielded a sample of 2692 A-type stars, of which 0.6% were found to have 8-μm excesses above the expected photospheric values. The low fraction of main sequence stars with mid-IR excesses found in this work indicates that dust disks in the terrestrial planet zone of Main Sequence intermediate mass stars are rare. Dissipation mechanisms such as photo-evaporation, grain growth, collisional grinding or planet formation could possibly explain the depletion of dust detected in the inner regions of these disks.

Gaia is a space astrometry mission, a broad survey project following the measurement and operational principles of Hipparcos. It will help solving one of the most difficult yet deeply fundamental challenges in modern astronomy: to create an extraordinarily precise three-dimensional map of about one billion stars throughout our Galaxy and beyond. In the process, it will map their three-dimensional motions, which encode the origin and subsequent evolution of the Galaxy. Through comprehensive photometric and spectroscopic classification, it will provide the detailed physical properties of each star observed: characterising their luminosity, temperature, gravity, and elemental composition. This massive stellar census will provide the basic observational data to tackle an enormous range of important problems related to the origin, structure, and evolutionary history of our Galaxy.