The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is the most ambitious ground-based survey currently planned in the visible band. Mapping of the Milky Way is one of the four main science and design drivers. The main 20,000 sq.deg. large survey area will be imaged about 1000 times in six bands (ugrizy) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, with the first light expected in 2015. These data will result in databases including 10 billion galaxies and a similar number of stars, and will serve the majority of science programs. In the Milky Way context, these deep LSST data will enable unprecedented studies of distant stars in Galactic halo, as well as intrinsically faint nearby objects, such as white dwarfs and LTY dwarfs.

The Pan-STARRS 1 Telescope (PS1) is currently (2009 Aug) undergoing final commissioning efforts and starting to perform initial science observations for the PS1 survey mission. PS1 will greatly expand the known population of Brown Dwarfs, with discovery via photometry, proper-motion, and parallax.

The Galactic Australian SKA Pathfinder (GASKAP) survey is one of several key science projects with ASKAP, a new radio telescope being built in Australia as a technology demonstrator for the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). GASKAP aims to survey about 12,779 square degrees of the Galaxy and the Magellanic System, at high spectral resolution (0.2 km s−1) and using several wavelengths: the λ21-cm HI line, the λ18-cm OH lines, and the comb of recombination lines around λ18-cm. The area covered by GASKAP includes all of the Galactic plane south of declination +40° with |b| < 10°, selected areas at higher latitudes covering important interstellar clouds in the disk and halo, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, and the Magellanic Bridge and Stream. Compared with previous surveys, GASKAP will achieve an order of magnitude or greater improvement in brightness sensitivity and resolution in various combinations of beam size and mapping speed matched to the astrophysical objectives.

Special Session 9 of the XXVII General Assembly (11–14 August 2009, Rio de Janeiro) was devoted to the topic “Marking the 400th Anniversary of Kepler's Astronomia nova”. During the two-and-a-half day meeting (spread over four days), there were nine invited and three contributed talks, a round-table discussion on the future of Kepler studies and an open session to propose the setting up of a Johannes Kepler Working Group under the aegis of the IAU.