Mission Overview

Map of Observations

sdss_footprint_f.png
Sky coverage map for some of the SDSS-IV data, including the APOGEE, eBOSS, and MaNGA surveys. The SDSS Imaging Survey's footprint is plotted in gray,  the APOGEE footprint in red, the eBOSS footprint in blue, and the MaNGA footprint is plotted in green. For the spectroscopic data, the footprints were derived from the SDSS summary catalogs, the "allStar" catalog for APOGEE, the "spAll" file for eBOSS, and the "drpall" file for MaNGA. 

Wavelength Coverage

sdssSpectraChart.png

  • MaNGA, eBOSS, SDSS Legacy: 3621-10354 Å 
  • APOGEE: 1.51-1.7 µm
  • SDSS Imaging: ugriz filters, 3551-8931 Å

 

Summary:

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is an international collaboration producing wide-field imaging and high-resolution spectroscopic surveys since 1998. The SDSS Legacy Archive is the collection of science-ready SDSS data which is hosted at MAST. This includes all unique, final, science-ready data products across all present and future SDSS data releases, including images, spectra, catalogs and Value Added Catalogs (VACs).

The SDSS Legacy Archive currently includes data from the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey. More surveys and data products will be added soon.

Active From

  • SDSS-I: 1998-2005
  • SDSS-II: 2005-2008
  • SDSS-III: 2008-2014
  • SDSS-IV: 2014-2020
  • SDSS-V: 2020-Present

Resolution 

  • MaNGA, eBOSS, SDSS Legacy: R~2,000

  • APOGEE: R~22,500

  • SDSS Imaging: 0.396 arcsec/pixel

Telescopes 

  • Apache Point Observatory SDSS 2.5-M

  • Apache Point Observatory NMSU 1.0-M

  • Las Campanas Observatory du Pont 2.5-M

On this Page

Documentation

Screenshot of SDSS Archive Manual

October 23,  2024

The SDSS Legacy Archive User Manual

The SDSS Archive Manual website contains data product overviews, summaries of MAST tools, and tutorials on how to interact with SDSS data at MAST.

SDSS consists of a number of surveys programs defined by different instrumentation and scientific motivation. The surveys available at MAST are listed below.

 

  • Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory; Optical wide-field IFU spectroscopic survey of over 10,000 low-redshift galaxies
  • More Coming Soon

    More Coming Soon
    The SDSS Legacy Archive at MAST is under active development: more SDSS surveys and data products will be added soon!

Search Tools

There are several interfaces for accessing SDSS data at MAST. For more information, see the Data Access page in the Archive Manual for instructions on accessing and downloading SDSS data at MAST.

  • MAST Portal

    A screenshot of the MAST Portal

    A web-based interface for cross-mission searches of data at MAST or the Virtual Observatory.

  • astroquery.mast

    A screenshot of a Jupyter notebook showing how to use astroquery

    Search for and retrieve SDSS data products programmatically using Python

  • MAST API

    A block of code showing an example MAST API query

    Tools for programmatically querying the MAST Portal

 

  • In the MAST Search PortalSDSS data can be found in an Advanced Search by searching for Mission = "SDSS" or using the Provenance Name field for a specific survey (for example Provenance Name = "APOGEE" or Provenance Name = "MaNGA", not case sensitive).
    The user guide for how to search and download products using the MAST Portal is available here.
  • For Astroquery, the following example code demonstrates how to search for SDSS data in Python.
from astroquery.mast import Observations

# Search for all SDSS targets
all_obs = Observations.query_criteria(obs_collection="sdss")
print(all_obs)

# Search for MaNGA data only
all_obs = Observations.query_criteria(provenance_name="manga")
data_products = Observations.get_product_list(all_obs)
print(data_products)

Featured Data Products

All Data Products
  • Images & Photometry

    SDSS Image of globular cluster M13, obtained from the SDSS SkyServer
    The SDSS Imaging survey provides wide-field imaging and ugriz photometry for 14,055 square degrees of sky.
  • Spectra

    A series of optical spectra from the SDSS MaStar stellar library, ordered by temperature with the hottest star on top and the coolest star on the bottom.
    APOGEE, MaNGA, eBOSS, and the SDSS Legacy surveys provide optical and infrared spectroscopy of a combined millions of stars and galaxies.
  • Spectral Cubes

    An illustration of the footprint of a 127 fiber MaNGA bundle overlaid on an image of a spiral galaxy. Image from https://www.sdss4.org/feature_manga_2/
    The MaNGA survey provides 3D spectral cubes and galaxy maps containing velocities, spectral index and emission line measurements.
  • Catalogs

    The SDSS’s map of the Universe. Each dot is a galaxy; the color is the g-r color of that galaxy. Image from https://www.sdss4.org/science/orangepie/
    All SDSS surveys provide catalogs of source lists, observation metadata, and derived measurements for their targets, as well as community-contributed value-added catalogs.
  • MaNGA Notebook Tutorial

    An HST image of the interacting galaxy pair Mrk-848B. Two spiral galaxies are interacting and merging together. On top of the image, H-alpha emission line flux contours highlight where the gas lives in both galaxies.
    Jupyter Notebook tutorial for accessing MaNGA data at MAST, and making an H-alpha emission map for interacting galaxy pair Mrk-848B
  • Astroquery.MAST Tutorials

    the MAST logo
    Beginner-level tutorials for how to use astroquery to search and download MAST data using Python

External Links