This review concentrates on the oldest populations in the LMC. Specifically, the LMC has a large extent and mass, it has star clusters coeval with those in the Milky Way halo, and more work needs to be done before we are convinced that there are similarly-aged field stars in the LMC. Further, all studied fields in the Clouds are different from Milky Way halo fields. Observations with the new generation of large telescopes can clear up the uncertainties noted in this review.

The star formation history and kinematics of intermediate-age and old populations in the Small Magellanic Cloud are the subject of this brief review. New results confirm the occurrence of a period of enhanced SF about 8–10 Gyr ago in the SMC. Younger populations are confirmed to be more centrally concentrated than older ones. The SMC, at least in the areas studied (which do not include the Bar) seems to have had a different history of star formation from the LMC. Although the kinematics of the SMC have been extensively studied, it is still unclear if there are distinct Bar, disk and halo components, or if all populations share the same kinematics.

New optical observations of field stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud from the ground and with the Hubble Space Telescope provide the basis for investigations of the history of field star formation in our nearest galactic neighbor. Results from WFPC2 photometry of field stars indicate that the stellar initial mass function for stars around 1 M⊙ is similar to that in the solar neighborhood. Long-term variations occurred in the average SFR with enhanced activity in the past 2–4 Gyr, a fallow period about 2–10 Gyr in the past, and an initial phase of astration ~12 Gyr ago. The recent increase in field star formation is less than that for the birth of compact star clusters; the cluster formation rate does not give a complete evolutionary picture.

We present a status report of the original EROS and the on-going EROS-2 microlensing surveys, which were created to search for dark matter in the Galactic halo via microlensing effects on LMC/SMC stars. Microlensing surveys provide long-term systematic observations of millions of stars in both Clouds which yield a unique database of stellar photometry and variability. We review the results obtained on pulsating stars and detail the similarities and differences of the Magellanic Cloud Herbig Ae/Be stars with their Galactic counterparts.

We present a brief description of the Magellanic Clouds Photometric Survey. In particular, we discuss examples of how the new generation of densely populated CMDs provide new information than that available previously.

Thanks to their pronounced and well recognizable spectral features, carbon stars can be identified easily in Galactic halo and galaxies. In this paper we will review the extensive searches for carbon stars in the Magellanic Clouds with emphasis on the recent work devoted to the carbon stars of low luminosity and the more classical carbon stars populating the outer regions of these systems.

This paper reviews the luminosity distribution of AGB stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud. I briefly summarize the history and results of the previous surveys, and then present a first analysis of the DENIS survey in the IJKS bands, and ISOCAM observations at 4.5 and 12 μm.

The proximity, accurately known distance and low line-of-sight reddening give the ideal circumstances to pursue studies of individual stellar populations in the Magellanic Clouds. Here we show how our understanding of the evolution and chemical composition of the planetary nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds has been impacted by imaging and UV spectroscopic studies using the Hubble Space Telescope. Images provide sizes, internal morphological structure, absolute fluxes, and dynamical ages, while spectra allow us to place the central stars accurately on the H-R Diagram, and we can also examine the details of the evolution, of mass- and age- dependent chemical dredge-up processes, and infer the star-formation history of the Magellanic Clouds.

Star formation in the outermost regions of the LMC, several kpc from the center, has been dormant for some Gyr. With deep HST and wide-field ground-based imaging surveys, sufficient stars can be measured to accurately delineate the critical turn-off and subgiant branch regions of the CMD, and thus provide a picture of the first 10 Gyr of star formation in the LMC.

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is unique among galaxies in the Local Group in that it is the most massive non-spiral, is relatively gas-rich, and is actively forming stars. Determining its star-formation rate (SFR) as a function of time will be a cornerstone in our understanding of galaxy evolution. The best method of deriving a galaxy's past SFR is to compare the densities of stars in a color-magnitude diagram (CMD), a Hess diagram, with model Hess diagrams. The LMC has a complex stellar population with ages ranging from 0 to ~ 14 Gyr and metallicities from −2 ≲ [Fe/H] ≲ −0.4, and deriving its SFR and simultaneously constraining model input parameters (distance, age-metallicity relation, reddening, and stellar models) requires well-populated CMDs that span the magnitude range 15 ≤ V ≤ 24. Although existing CMDs of field stars in the LMC show tantalizing evidence for a significant burst of star formation that occurred ~ 3 Gyr ago (for examples, see Westerlund et al. 1995; Vallenari et al. 1996; Elson, et al. 1997; Gallagher et al. 1999, and references therein), estimates of the enhancement in the SFR vary from factors of 3 to 50. This uncertainty is caused by the relatively large photometric errors that plague crowded ground-based images, and the small number statistics that plague CMDs created from single Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) images.

The isochrone probability function (IPF) is derived from the slope of the mass–distance relation on an isochrone in where the distance along the isochrone is computed with respect to some arbitrary, well-defined point. IPFs contain the information needed to calculate both luminosity functions and color functions, and they provide a straightforward way of generating synthetic stellar populations.

We present a method to determine the star formation history (SFH) of a mixed stellar population, based on an iterative maximum Likelihood comparison of stellar photometry to model color-magnitude diagrams. We demonstrate the algorithm on a subregion of the Large Magellanic Cloud, observed as part of our ongoing Magellanic Clouds Photometric Survey. We will eventually perform this analysis on hundreds of regions in both Clouds, resulting in a homogeneous SFH map of these galaxies.

The age distributions in the bar and disk of the Large Magellanic Cloud are studied using data for 262 clusters with known ages, of which 89 are located in the bar. The spatial distributions for clusters in different age groups are investigated. Epochs of active star formation are determined for the bar and disk of the LMC. The ages of the stellar populations in the bar differ from that for the galaxy as a whole: in the bar, there is a deficit of intermediate-age clusters (5 × 108–6 × 109 yr) and an excess of young clusters with ages 3 × 107–5 × 108 yr. This indicates that the star formation history in the bar differs from that in regions outside the bar at the same distances from the center of the galaxy. Data on the composition of the old stellar populations in the bar and the disk of the LMC and the spatial distribution of intermediate-age clusters in the galaxy suggest that the LMC bar formed (2–6) × 109 years ago. Deviation of colors of bars from the normal color sequence of galaxies on several two-color diagrams is found using multicolor surface photometry for eight barred galaxies. Using results of evolutionary synthesis modeling, I can model the abnormal colors of bars by an intermediate-age star (~ 109 yr) deficiency. I find that the deficiency of an intermediate-age stellar population is a general property of bars.

We present deep photometry to V ~ 27.5 obtained with the HST in several fields in the LMC and the SMC. We derive luminosity functions for the faintest stars which are consistent with an initial mass function similar to that of the solar neighborhood, although moderate variations are not excluded. We discuss implications of these observations for the star formation history in these regions of the LMC and SMC.

We present theoretical HST and broad band colors from young and intermediate stellar populations with age ranging from t = 8 Myr to t = 5 Gyr and three different metallicities Z=0.02, 0.006 and 0.001. We suggest the combined use of HST UV colors and IR colors (V-K in particular) to disentangle the metallicity-age effect in integrated colors of young stellar populations (t ≤ 1 Gyr).

We study star formation history and chemical evolution in the LMC Bar centre. With the HST PC and WFC plus uvby photometry, we find 30% of the stars younger than 200 My and evidence for reduced star formation 3 to 0.2 Gy ago. The overall [Fe/H] is −0.5. Many stars older than 4 Gy contradict a very young Bar.

We used the HST to obtain high resolution images of the LMC Bar centre. Through careful data analysis, taking into account cleaning, dithering and crowded field decomposition, we show that accurate uvby photometry can be achieved for F dwarfs, reaching stars around the lower turn-off region, as faint as V=22.

An extensive search has been made in the MACHO Photometry Database for new R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars in the LMC. Only three such stars were known previously. Eleven new LMC RCB stars have been spectroscopically confirmed so far.

The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) has observed a portion of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) at J (1.25 μm), H (1.65 μm), and Ks (2.17 μm), as part of its routine nightly operations with an automated 1.3-m telescope at CTIO, Chile. The camera observes the sky in the three channels simultaneously, using 256 × 256 HgCdTe detector arrays. The survey samples the sky in 6° x 8.′3 scans. The 2MASS Production Processing System provides final atlas images and source extractions with precise photometric calibration and astrometric positions. The survey's 10σ sensitivity is 15.8 mag at J, 15.1 at H, and 14.3 at Ks. 2MASS will ultimately detect ~107 point sources in the LMC and will support analyses of the ages, luminosity and mass functions, and metallicities of the red stellar populations and a census of AGB and carbon stars, as well as extinction maps, across the LMC. This work presents an initial analysis of ~20 square degrees.

We present first results of a survey for pre-main-sequence stars in the Magellanic Clouds. Our search concentrated on NGC 346, the most prominent OB association in the Small Magellanic Cloud, and on the 30 Dor starburst cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The identification of the young low- to intermediate-mass stellar population in the SMC and LMC allows us to study whether or not these populations formed simultaneously with high-mass stars, and to what an extent lower metallicity affects the low-mass IMF. We can also evaluate the duration of star formation in a starburst region.