SDSS Data Release 5

Where to Start

News and Updates

Tutorials

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (see www.sdss.org for general information) will map one-quarter of the entire sky and perform a redshift survey of galaxies, quasars and stars. The DR5 is the fifth major data release and provides images, imaging catalogs, spectra, and redshifts for download.

About DR5 explains what is new in DR5, and lists remaining or new caveats and subtleties in the data.

Please refer to the credits page for our sources of funding, participating institutions, how to acknowledge the use of SDSS data in your publications. Please also note how to refer to SDSS sources in your publications using the proper IAU nomenclature for SDSS sources.

Imaging

Footprint area

8000 sq. deg.

Imaging catalog

215 million unique objects

Data volume

images	9.0 TB
catalogs (DAS, fits format)	1.8 TB
catalogs (CAS, SQL database)	3.6 TB

Average wavelengths and magnitude limits
(95% detection repeatability for point sources)

`u`	`g`	`r`	`i`	`z`
3551Å	4686Å	6165Å	7481Å	8931Å
22.0	22.2	22.2	21.3	20.5

PSF width

1.4" median in r

Photometric calibration

`r`	`u-g`	`g-r`	`r-i`	`i-z`
2%	3%	2%	2%	3%

Astrometry

< 0.1" rms absolute per coordinate

Spectroscopy

Spectroscopic area

5740 sq. deg.

Wavelength coverage

3800-9200Å

Resolution

1800

Signal-to-noise

>4 per pixel at g=20.2

Redshift accuracy

30 km/sec rms for main galaxy sample (from repeat observations)

Target magnitude limits for main samples

Galaxies: Petrosian r <17.77
Quasars: PSF i <19.1

Spectroscopic catalog

1,048,960 spectra, classified into

674,749 Galaxies

79,394 Quasars (redshift <2.3)

11,217 Quasars (redshift >2.3)

154,925 Stars

60,808 M stars and later

55,555 Sky spectra

12,312 Unknown class

Data volume

calibrated spectra ("2d")	60 GB
spectra, redshifts, line measurements ("1d")	170 GB

Previous data releases

For reference, we provide links to earlier data releases. The current data release always provides both the largest sky coverage and the highest-quality data and reductions.

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News

All DAS servers will be down the weekend of April 22, 2006 for scheduled maintenance.

Old news

SDSS DR5 Imaging Sky Coverage (Aitoff projection of Equatorial coordinates)

SDSS DR5 Spectral Sky Coverage (Aitoff projection of Equatorial coordinates)