Outline of the VISTA Carina Nebula Survey mosaic pattern (yellow boxes) shown in the optical image of the Carina Nebula complex (from: www.eso.org/public/images/eso0905b/; image credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2, Davide De Martin). A grid of J2000 coordinates is shown. The famous star η Car in the center of the Carina Nebula is located slightly to the left and below the image center (near RA(J2000) = 10^h 45^m, Dec(J2000) = −59° 41′). The H ii region Gum 31 at the northwestern edge of the bright nebulosity and the stellar cluster NGC 3293 near the northwestern edge of the VISTA field are labeled. The region observed in the context of the Chandra Carina Complex Project (CCCP; Townsley et al. 2011) and the area of the HAWK-I survey (Preibisch et al. 2011c) are marked. The Galactic plane is shown as the thick solid line running approximately diagonal through the northern part of the VCNS area.