This week's AstroLunch will be a pre-discussion for the PILOT meeting at the AAO the following week (Mar 26 - have you registered yet?). The aim is to have a discussion regarding what could be done with PILOT at Dome C (viz a 2m-class telescope, capable of wide-field diffraction limited performance from 30 microns to less than 1 micron).
Jon Lawrence will present a brief overview of what the performance capability of PILOT will be, and then we're looking to have an open discussion about what science you could do with such a telescope. In particular, is there interesting science to be done with a 2m telescope that can work in the diffraction limit in the optical regime, providing good strehl ratios many arcseconds off-axis? Is there still interesting science to be done in the thermal infrared with a telescope as sensitive as Gemini but capable of wider-field imaging now we're in the Spitzer era? So please put on your thinking caps and join in the discussion.