Where to start

About the data

• The Early Data Release (EDR) paper (with a journal subscription, access the EDR paper at the AJ web site) is the most comprehensive description of SDSS data. Much of the information on this web site is obtained from the EDR paper. It should be considered essential reading to do science with SDSS data.
• However, some of the information in the EDR paper has been superseded by information on this web site. The description of changes from the Early Data Release to Data Release 1 (DR1) describes what has changed (also see the DR1 paper Abazajian et al. 2003, AJ 126, 2081 (AJ site, subscription required); also at astro-ph/0305492).
• The DR1 contains the "beta" processing of survey data. Please read this note about what makes DR1 a beta release.

About SDSS

• The SDSS NASA proposal, which includes a detailed scientific justification, and comprehensive descriptions of the hardware.
• The York et al. technical summary paper of SDSS. You can access York et al. 2002 locally, as well as on astro-ph/0006396 and York et al. 2000 at the AJ web site (subscription required)
• The SDSS publication list, including
  • technical publications
  • scientific publications by members of the collaboration
  • publications based on SDSS data written by people outside the collaboration

This web site

Getting data

• DR1 sky coverage
• Data Products
• Data Access
• Acknowledging the use of SDSS data
• Use IAU source designations of SDSS sources in publications

Documentation

• Survey instruments
• Data flow
• Algorithms
• Glossary of Terms