VISTA Magellanic Survey Data Release 4

Published: 02 Apr 2017
LMC. ESO Schmidt image

The VISTA Magellanic Survey (VMC) aims at the determination of the spatially resolved star formation history and three-dimensional geometry of the Magellanic system, reaching sources below the oldest main-sequence turn-off with multi-epoch Ks mean magnitudes for pulsating variable stars. This new data release (DR4) is based on observations of twelve survey fields covering a total of about 18 square degrees, acquired between November 2009 and August 2013, with at least three visits per field in Y and J filters and 12 in Ks.

This release provides 319 reduced and calibrated tile images, in addition to the corresponding pawprints, deep co-added images, and source lists (separately for each filter). VMC DR4 complements previously released imaging data of seven VMC survey fields. It also provides band-merged catalogues for both new and previously released images taking new overlaps into account. Catalogues with point spread function (PSF) fitted magnitudes for each tile and confirmed variable stars in some tiles are also provided.

The data can be browsed and downloaded from the ESO Science Archive Facility using the Phase 3 query form. VMC catalogues can be queried individually or conjoined using the ESO Catalogue Facility query interface. More information about VMC DR4 is available in the associated release description.