In 2010 several "public surveys" started operation using the 4m VISTA telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.
One of them is called VMC (VISTA Magellanic Cloud, see http://star.herts.ac.uk/~mcioni/vmc/) survey and is led by Maria-Rosa Cioni (Leibniz-Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam & University of Hertfordshire). M. Groenewegen is one of the original Core Members.
VMC is imaging 184 square degrees covering our nearby neighbouring galaxies: the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Small Magellanic Cloud and some fields in the Magellanic Bridge and Magellanic Stream.
The main aims of the survey will are to study the spatially resolved star formation history of the system as well as to trace its three-dimensional structure through several distance indicators (Cepheids, RR Lyrae, Red Clump stars, Tip-of-the-Red Giant Branch (TRGB) stars)
The main ROB involvement is in the analysis of AGB stars (as a population), and the long-period variables (LPVs) among AGB stars.
Between March 2010 and December 2011 Marco Gullieuszik was supported by a BELSPO Action-1 grant to work on VMC data.
This led to the following publication:
Gullieuszik M., Groenewegen M.A.T., Cioni M.-R.L., et al. 2012, A&A 537, A105, "The VMC survey III. Mass-loss rates and luminosities of LMC AGB stars"
Every year a consortium meeting is held to discuss the progress of the Survey and the related scientic papers.
In 2018 the VMC Consortium meeting will be held at the ROB.
The data by the VMC and other VISTA surveys are made public at regular intervals in "Data Releases", and are available at the VISTA Science Archive (VSA).