Optical and infrared images of the central part of the Carina Nebula. Left: optical image reproduced from the ESO Photo Release eso1250 (image credit: VPHAS+ Consortium/Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit). It is composed of a B-band image in the blue color channel, a g-band image in the green color channel, and r-band and Hα-band images in the red color channel. The white box marks the region around the pillar G 287.75−0.66 (which is not visible in this optical image). The dashed yellow circle marks the region of the obscured cluster Tr 16-SE and the dashed blue ellipse the cluster Tr 16. The positions of the stars MJ 596, MJ 633, and η Car are marked. North is up, and east is to the left. Right: color composite image of the region around the pillar, composed from our VISTA K_s-band image in blue, the Spitzer 5.8 μm image in green (where the area around η Car [near the upper right corner] is affected by saturation), and our LABOCA 870 μm map in red. The white 4′ × 4′ square marks the region of the pillar G 287.75−0.66, and the circles show the KMOS patrol fields for the B (blue), F (orange), and C (white) observations. North is up, and east is to the left.