  VISIONS is an ESO public survey of five nearby (d < 500 pc) star-forming
molecular cloud complexes that are canonically associated with the
constellations of Chamaeleon, Corona Australis, Lupus, Ophiuchus, and Orion.
The survey was carried out with VISTA, using VIRCAM, and collected data in the
near-infrared passbands J, H, and Ks. With a total on-sky exposure time of 49.4
h VISIONS covers an area of 650 deg$^2$, and it was designed to build an
infrared legacy archive similar to that of 2MASS. Taking place between April
2017 and March 2022, the observations yielded approximately 1.15 million
images, which comprise 19 TB of raw data. The observations are grouped into
three different subsurveys: The wide subsurvey comprises shallow, large-scale
observations and has visited the star-forming complexes six times over the
course of its execution. The deep subsurvey of dedicated high-sensitivity
observations has collected data on the areas with the largest amounts of dust
extinction. The control subsurvey includes observations of areas of
low-to-negligible dust extinction. Using this strategy, the VISIONS survey
offers multi-epoch position measurements, is able to access deeply embedded
objects, and provides a baseline for statistical comparisons and sample
completeness. In particular, VISIONS is designed to measure the proper motions
of point sources with a precision of 1 mas/yr or better, when complemented with
data from VHS. Hence, VISIONS can provide proper motions for sources
inaccessible to Gaia. VISIONS will enable addressing a range of topics,
including the 3D distribution and motion of embedded stars and the nearby
interstellar medium, the identification and characterization of young stellar
objects, the formation and evolution of embedded stellar clusters and their
initial mass function, as well as the characteristics of interstellar dust and
the reddening law.
