Data Access for SDSS DR10

Data Release 10 includes four types of data: images, optical spectra, infrared spectra, and catalog data (parameters measured from images and spectra, such as magnitudes and redshifts). The SDSS web sites offer several different online data access tools, each suited to a particular need. The primary websites, described in more detail in the Available Tools page, are:

Website	Purpose
www.sdss3.org/dr10	DR10 Documentation (this site)
dr10.sdss3.org	Science Archive Server (SAS): interactive spectra and image mosaics
data.sdss3.org/sas/dr10	Direct download access to DR10 FITS data files for experts
data.sdss3.org/datamodel	Details of the SAS directory structure, file formats, and the contents of each file
skyserver.sdss3.org/dr10	SkyServer: Browser-based access to the Catalog Archive Server (CAS) database, with resources for learning SQL and projects to teach science
skyserver.sdss3.org/casjobs	Flexible advanced SQL-based interface to the CAS, for all data releases

The tables below provide links to the appropriate tools for various common tasks. The first column describes something you might need to do with SDSS data, and the second column links to the best tool to do that. If your question isn't addressed here, please look at the Frequently Asked Questions and/or Tutorials help pages.

If you are having difficulty connecting to any data server, please check the status page for announcements about planned outages.

Images

The SDSS has taken deep images of more than one-third of the entire night sky. You can view SDSS images online for any object or sky position in the survey area, and download images of SDSS fields as FITS files. Since some stars were targeted for APOGEE infrared spectroscopy using 2MASS survey data, we also offer access to 2MASS images. Data from the SDSS-II Supernova Survey is not available in DR10, but is available in its entirety at the SDSS-II Supernova Survey website.

I need to...	Tool to use
browse through sky images to look for interesting objects	Navigate
create a finding chart for my telescope using SDSS imaging	Finding chart
download FITS images for a specific SDSS field containing a given object or sky position	Imaging (FITS) Field Search
download FITS images for many SDSS fields	Bulk Imaging (FITS) Search
see thumbnail images for a list of objects, or for objects matching search criteria	Image List

Optical Spectra

DR10 includes all optical spectra from the original SDSS-I/-II, all SEGUE spectra, and all BOSS spectra through July 2012.

I need to...	Tool to use
know whether SDSS has measured an optical spectrum for my object	Navigate
see the optical spectrum for my object	Spectrum Search
download the FITS file with the optical spectrum for my object	Spectrum Search
get 50,000 spectra	See the bulk download documentation
Know which optical spectroscopic data files are available	Spectroscopic pipeline description
Understand the format of a specific data file	Data Model

Infrared Spectra

DR10 includes all APOGEE Infrared Spectra through July 2012.

I need to...	Tool to use
know whether the SDSS has measured an infrared spectrum for my object	Navigate
see the infrared spectrum for my object	Basic Spectrum Search
browse infrared spectra for many objects	Bulk Spectrum Search
get 50,000 spectra	See the bulk download documentation
Know which APOGEE spectra data files are available	Spectroscopic pipeline description
get all measured parameters for all APOGEE stars at once	allStar and allVisit files

Catalog Data

Catalog data summarize quantities measured from the images and spectra such as magnitudes, redshifts, and object classifications. These are available either from the Catalog Archive Server (CAS) database, or as binary tables in FITS file format.

I need to...	Tool to use
find all objects which match some simple selection criteria	SkyServer SQL Search
learn how to write SQL queries	SQL Tutorial or SQL in SkyServer or Sample Queries
perform a complicated, CPU-intensive query of SDSS catalog data	CasJobs
generate my own database with custom tables of a subset of SDSS data	CasJobs
understand the CAS database schema	Schema Browser
download fits files with the catalog data	See the bulk download documentation
understand the format of a specific catalog data file	Data Model