  As a response to the white paper call, we propose to turn Kepler to the South
Ecliptic Pole (SEP) and observe thousands of large amplitude variables for
years with high cadence in the frame of the Kepler-SEP Mission. The degraded
pointing stability will still allow observing these stars with reasonable
(probably better than mmag) accuracy. Long-term continuous monitoring already
proved to be extremely helpful to investigate several areas of stellar
astrophysics. Space-based missions opened a new window to the dynamics of
pulsation in several class of pulsating variable stars and facilitated detailed
studies of eclipsing binaries. The main aim of this mission is to better
understand the fascinating dynamics behind various stellar pulsational
phenomena (resonances, mode coupling, chaos, mode selection) and interior
physics (turbulent convection, opacities). This will also improve the
applicability of these astrophysical tools for distance measurements,
population and stellar evolution studies. We investigated the pragmatic details
of such a mission and found a number of advantages: minimal reprogramming of
the flight software, a favorable field of view, access to both galactic and LMC
objects. However, the main advantage of the SEP field comes from the large
sample of well classified targets, mainly through OGLE. Synergies and
significant overlap (spatial, temporal and in brightness) with both ground-
(OGLE, LSST) and space-based missions (GAIA, TESS) will greatly enhance the
scientific value of the Kepler-SEP mission. GAIA will allow full
characterization of the distance indicators. TESS will continuously monitor
this field for at least one year, and together with the proposed mission
provide long time series that cannot be obtained by other means. If Kepler-SEP
program is successful, there is a possibility to place one of the so-called
LSST "deep-drilling" fields in this region.

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics