The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is about to Start

Sadanori Okamura

Figures

• Figure 1: (GIF, 5 kB)
  The SDSS system response curves without atmospheric extinction (solid curves) and at 1.0 airmasses (broken curves)
• Figure 2: (GIF, 151 kB)
  Apache Point Observatory in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico, USA, the observing site of the SDSS. The SDSS's 2.5-m wide field telescope is on the left. The funny looking 'box' is the wind baffle, which is mounted and driven independently from the telescope. The telescope tube itself cannot be seen. (White Sands National Monument is visible in the distance, above the telescope.) The photometric telescope, used for calibrations, is inside the small dome to the right of the center. Optical fibers for spectroscopy are prepositioned each day in the support building on the right (behind the trees). The white building in the center rolls on rails to cover the 2.5-meter telescope when it is not in use. The building seen above the photometric telescope dome is the enclosure of the ARC 3.5-meter telescope. (Photo Credit: Fermilab Visual Media Services)
• Figure 3: (GIF, 227 kB)
  The SDSS mosaic CCD camera (by courtesy of Maki Sekiguchi)
• Figure 4: (GIF, 116 kB)
  Schematic view of the mosaic CCD camera
• Figure 5: (GIF, 8 kB)
  Schematic view of the SDSS spectrograph
• Figure 6: (GIF, 74 kB)
  Fiber cartridge with 4 x 20 fibers equipped. The circular plug plate (not shown) is loaded on the top. Two box-like components at both sides of the cartridge are the slit heads.
• Figure 7: (GIF, 193 kB)
  Subtraction of the wing of a bright star. Faint objects superposed on the halo of the star become clearly visible after the subtraction.
• Figure 8: (GIF, 6 kB)
  A simulated redshift histogram of one million galaxies in the SDSS spectroscopic sample (Fukugita 1998)