Available Optical Spectral Data

The major spectroscopic results are contained in a few different file structures (on SAS) and database tables (in CAS), listed below. In the case of the SAS files, the large FITS files are all line-by-line matched, so that the Nth entry in any file refers to the same object. The “plates” file, listed first below, is especially useful as a full list of the plates released. Note that the links into SAS below bring you into the full directory tree; it is best not to wander there before first reading both Understanding SDSS Spectroscopic Data and the data model.

Methods for accessing these data are summarized on the data access page. Also see the spectro pipeline page for a more complete list of spectro pipeline output files and their download locations.

Spectral FITS files are also available through the SkyServer Explore tool.