Sloan Digital Sky Survey
In April 2023 Dr. Anne-Marie Weijmans from the University of St Andrews gave a talk about the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
During the talk she mentioned various websites where the data from the Survey is used. Some of these sites allow the viewer to interact with the data such as Galaxy Zoo.
Listed below are her recommended sites and her comments.
https://www.sdss.org/ | Sloan Digital Sky Surveys home page |
https://voyages.sdss.org/ | SDSS Voyages project: lots of explanations and exercises (including find the asteroid). Aimed at high school pupils, but definitely also very suitable (and fun) for adults who want to know a bit more about the (astro)physics behind the observations |
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/zookeeper/galaxy-zoo | Latest Galaxy Zoo project to classify galaxies |
https://skyserver.sdss.org/dr18/ | Explore the SDSS data: I would recommend ‘Navigate’ to have a browse, and also ‘Finding Chart’ for those interested in making finding charts for observations |
https://voyages.sdss.org/launch/launch-into-the-sdss/scavenger-hunt/ | This explains about the Scavenger hunt I mentioned during the talk, where you are challenged to find objects in the SkyServer navigate (and has some explanations on what to look out for, and why) |
https://www.youtube.com/@SloanDigitalSkySurveys | SDSS YouTube Channel, includes the videos I showed about the plate plugging and observing throughout the night |
https://www.sdss.org/press-releases/largest-age-map-of-the-milky-way-reveals-how-our-galaxy-grew-up/ | Press release on stellar ages in the Milky Way |
https://www.sdss.org/press-releases/no-need-to-mind-the-gap/ | Press release on measuring the Universe’s expansion with SDSS |
https://www.sdss.org/press-releases/ | Lots more press releases with SDSS results |
https://dr17.sdss.org/marvin/ | Webapp to explore SDSS MaNGA maps, maybe a bit more advanced than the other links, but still fun. There is an image roulette button on the middle of the page, which is a good place to start |