In addition to large numbers of normal galaxies, the multibeam HI Parkes all-sky survey will probably discover intergalactic HI clouds, very low-surface-brightness, gas-rich galaxies, and small HI clouds in nearby groups of galaxies. I will briefly discuss some aspects of why these classes of objects are interesting in the context of dark matter and galaxy formation.

The TAURUS Tunable Filter (TTF) affords a new approach to observational cosmology, allowing a wide field (10 arcmin) to be imaged monochromatically in contiguous wavelength intervals (6–60 Å bandpass) over the R and I bands. In a 200 s exposure with the AAT, the TTF can detect Hα emission powered by star formation rates as low as 0·1 M⊙ yr−1 at z = 0·08 and 1 M⊙ yr−1 at z = 0·24 in 2 arcsec seeing (cf. 0·26 M⊙ yr−1 for the LMC). In this paper we describe an emission-line survey currently under way using the TTF on the AAT to detect redshifted Hα over the ranges z = 0·06–0·1 and z = 0·22–0·26. Such detections will be of timely interest to the Southern HI Sky Survey which is motivated along similar lines.

Although the approximately flat rotation curves of gas in the outskirts of spirals are generally taken as strong evidence for spherical, isothermal dark matter halos, this conclusion is often incorrect and always model-dependent. A re-examination of the old and (nearly) model-independent inversion technique for determining the surface mass density of galaxies from their kinematics is presented. The method is shown to be relatively insensitive to noise in the kinematics. Due to incomplete kinematical knowledge at large radius, however, the surface mass density is reliable only in the inner half of the galaxy, a result that also applies to traditional rotation curve fitting techniques.

We report here on extragalactic large-scale structures uncovered by a deep optical survey for galaxies behind the southern Milky Way. Systematic visual inspection of the ESO/SRC survey revealed over 10000 previously unknown galaxies in the region 265° ≲ l ≲ 340°, ∣b∣ ≲ 10°. With subsequently obtained redshifts of more than 10% of these galaxies, new structures across the Milky Way are unveiled, such as a filament at ∼2500 km s−1 connecting to the Hydra and Antlia clusters, a shallow extended superduster in Vela (∼6000 km s−1), and a nearby (4882 km s−1), very massive (M ∼ 2 – 5 × 1015M☉), rich Coma-like cluster which seems to constitute the previously unidentified centre of the Great Attractor.

The innermost part of the Milky Way, where the foreground obscuration in the blue is AB ≳ 5m, i.e. where HI-column densities Nhi ≳ 6·1021cm−2, remains fully opaque. In this approximately 8° wide strip, the forthcoming blind HI survey with the multibeam system at Parkes will provide the only tool to unveil this part of the extragalactic sky.

In the regions of highest optical obscuration and infrared confusion, only 21-cm emission can be used to find galaxies in the Zone of Avoidance. A feasibility study conducted with the 300-ft telescope successfully uncovered galaxies which seem to be consistent with populations of optically-selected low surface brightness galaxies. A complete survey is currently being conducted in the north with the Dwingeloo telescope. The big breakthrough should come in the south, however, with the advent of the Parkes telescope multibeam system.

I discuss the implications of the Parkes Multibeam Southern Sky HI Survey for cosmology. It will determine the local mass function of HI clouds, detecting several hundred per decade of mass. Each of these will come with a redshift and, for the more massive clouds, an estimate of the velocity width. This will provide an ideal database for peculiar motion studies and for measurements of biasing of galaxies relative to the underlying matter distribution.

Analyses of QSO absorption lines show that the HI content has evolved over the redshift range z = 5 to z = 0. The 21-cm line measurements of the z = 0 HI content avoid several biases inherent in the absorption-line technique, such as the influence of evolving dust content in the absorbers, and will produce a reliable measure to anchor theories of galaxy evolution. Examples of important questions to be addressed by local HI surveys are: (1) Is there a significant population of gas-rich galaxies or intergalactic clouds that is missing from the census of optically selected galaxies? (2) Is there an adequate reservoir of neutral gas to substantially prolong star formation at its present rate? (3) Are there massive objects of such low HI column density that they can have escaped detection in the ‘unbiased’ HI surveys that have been conducted so far?

Driftscan methods are highly efficient, stable techniques for conducting extragalactic surveys in the 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen. Holding the telescope still while the beam scans the sky at the sidereal rate produces exceptionally stable spectral baselines, increased stability for RFI signals, and excellent diagnostic information about system performance. Data can be processed naturally and efficiently by grouping long sequences of spectra into an image format, thereby allowing thousands of individual spectra to be calibrated, inspected and manipulated as a single data structure with standard tools that already exist in astronomical software. The behaviour of spectral standing waves (multi-path effects) can be appraised and excised in this environment, making observations possible while the Sun is up. The method is illustrated with survey data from Arecibo and Nançay.

Traditional HI surveys of optically selected elliptical galaxies are time-consuming, and have a low detection rate. The forthcoming Parkes HI multibeam survey offers the exciting possibility of surveying more than 10,000 nearby elliptical galaxies for HI. I argue that this is likely to result in the detection of a large population of small, HI-rich elliptical galaxies which have not previously been studied in any systematic way.

We present preliminary results from HI observations of a new sample of compact groups done with the Parkes telescope, as well as from images made with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). These observations confirm earlier claims that a significant fraction of compact groups are deficient in HI, and hence that a significant fraction of groups of galaxies that appear compact on the sky are indeed compact systems. The ATCA observations of a very HI-poor group suggest that this group is a true compact system in an advanced stage of evolution. However, the ATCA observations also show that HI-rich groups exist that are genuinely compact.

The few elliptical galaxies with detected HI almost all seem to have optical peculiarities as well, though these are often well hidden and require special image enhancement techniques to reveal them. In this paper we show several deep images of ellipticals with optical shells which are associated with HI, and suggest that mergers, or at least encounters with gas-rich galaxies, are responsible. We also show some disk galaxies with unusual faint extensions, some of them the kinds of interactions that may result in HI in ellipticals. These illustrations are drawn from an atlas of low surface brightness images of bright galaxies currently in preparation.

There has been much debate in recent decades as to what fraction of ionising photons from star-forming regions in the Galactic disk escape into the halo. The recent detection of the Magellanic Stream in optical line emission at the CTIO 4 m and the AAT 3·9 m telescopes may now provide the strongest evidence that at least some of the radiation escapes the disk completely. We present a simple model to demonstrate that, while the distance to the Magellanic Stream is uncertain, the observed emission measures (εm ≈ 0·5 – 1 cm−6 pc) are most plausibly explained by photoionisation due to hot, young stars. This model requires that the mean Lyman-limit opacity perpendicular to the disk is τLL ≈ 3, and the covering fraction of the resolved clouds is close to unity. Alternative sources (e.g. shock, halo, LMC or metagalactic radiation) contribute negligible ionising flux.

We summarise recent attempts to detect warm ionised gas at large galactocentric distances. This includes searches for gas at the edges of spirals, in between cluster galaxies, towards extragalactic HI clouds, and towards high-velocity clouds and the Magellanic Stream in the Galaxy. With the exception of extragalactic HI clouds, all of these experiments have proved successful. Within each class, we have only observed a handful of objects. It is premature to assess what fraction of the missing baryonic mass fraction might be in the form of ionised gas. But, in most cases, the detections provide a useful constraint on the ambient ionising flux, and, in the case of spiral edges, can even trace dark matter haloes out to radii beyond the reach of radio telescopes.

We review very strong selection effects which operate against the detection of dim (i.e. low surface brightness) galaxies. The Parkes multibeam instrument offers a wonderful opportunity to turn up new populations of such galaxies. However, to explore the newly accessible parameter space, it will be necessary to survey both a very deep patch (105 s/pointing, limiting Nhi ∼ 1018 cm−2) and a deep patch (104 s/pointing, limiting Nhi ∼ 3 × 1018 cm−2) in carefully selected areas, and we outline the case to do this.

The Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST) has been upgraded to increase the diameter of the field of view from 70′ to 2·7°. A survey of the Galactic Plane is proposed to completely cover the region 240° ≤ l ≤ 365°, ∣ b ∣ ≤ 10° with a (1σ) sensitivity of 1–2 mJy. The results will provide a major resource for the investigation of supernova remnants, HII regions and transient radio sources. They will also be correlated with the galaxy search from the HI multibeam survey to be conducted at the Parkes telescope.

Recent results on NGC 2915, the first blue compact dwarf galaxy to have its mass distribution modelled, are summarised. NGC 2915 is shown to have HI well beyond its detected optical extent. Its rotation curve is well determined and fit with maximum disk mass models. The dark matter halo dominates the mass distribution at nearly all radii, and has a very dense core compared to those of normal galaxies. High-mass star formation energises the HI in the centre of the galaxy, but appears to be maintained in viriai equilibrium with the dark matter halo. The implications of these results are briefly discussed.

NGC 7421 is a barred spiral that is displaced from the centre of its optical envelope, and has a ‘bow-shock’-like western boundary, both suggestive of interaction with an intracluster medium. We have used five configurations of the ATCA to map the distribution and kinematics of HI in NGC 7421, and find supportive evidence for this scenario in the form of an HI ‘wake’. When compared with ROSAT PSPC observations of the diffuse hot gas in the surrounding group of galaxies, these new ATCA results will allow us to place new constraints on the density and dynamics of the intracluster medium.

We have found strong evidence for an abrupt decline in the HI rotation curve of the isolated spiral galaxy NGC 157. Various mass models to account for this, and the implications for the dark matter content of NGC 157, are discussed.

We present HI images for the dust-lane elliptical galaxy NGC 5266. This galaxy contains more than 1010M☉ of HI and our data show that the neutral hydrogen extends to ∼8 arcmin each side of the nucleus, or eight times the optical half-light radius Re. Surprisingly, the outer HI gas extends almost orthogonally to the optical dust lane. The overall HI kinematics can be successfully modelled by assuming that the gas hes in two orthogonal planes—in the plane of the dust lane in the central parts and perpendicular to this in the outer regions. The large amount of neutral gas observed and the HI morphology suggest that this object may have formed from the merger of two gas rich spiral galaxies. If so, it probably represents a relatively old merger remnant since most of the HI appears settled. The mass-to-light ratio has also been derived, with evidence for a dark matter halo around this galaxy.

New, high-resolution observations of the HI emission line and 20 cm continuum at the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) for the prototype polar ring galaxy NGC 4650A are presented. They show the presence of a far more extended HI distribution than previously observed with the VLA, and a very regular velocity field out to a distance of ∼50 kpc. The combined analysis of the HI data with optical and near-infrared (NIR) images argues against previous warp models used to describe the dynamics of this object. Further analysis of the new B-band image obtained at the European Southern Observatories New Technology Telescope (NTT) indicates clearly that the polar structure extends continuously to within about 200 pc of the nucleus of the central host galaxy, ruling out the presence of a ‘hole’ in the central region of this component. The presence of two spiral arms stretching out in the polar disk seems to represent the most likely explanation for the observed morphology and kinematics.