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