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Welcome to the SkyServer Search Tool!
Our database contains information on
millions of astronomical objects, both stars and galaxies. You can search the SDSS
database by using several predefined queries to find specific objects. The query pages
take the information you enter and create a command in the computer language SQL
(Structured Query Language). You send this command to the database by clicking on the
Submit button. Then the database returns the information matching the
criteria you entered, in the format you have requested.
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To search the database, select one of the following queries
- Radial:
Search the sky around a given point.
- Rectangular:
Search the sky in a rectangular region
- SQL:
Type an SQL command directly
The names and units of fields on the query pages
- ra, dec are the sky coordinates of the search.
- They can be entered either in
degrees or in the h:m:s, d:m:s notation.
- radius is the search radius for a radial query.
- It is measured in minutes of arc.
- u,g,r,i,z are the magnitudes of the objects in the SDSS.
- These represent the fluxes of light measured in logarithmic units, through various wavebands
from the ultraviolet to the infrared
The output options and formats on the query pages
- Return: the number of objects
- Selecting all will return all objects
- Selecting top N will return the first N objects satisfying the query
- Format: the output format
- It can be HTML, when a formatted web page is returned
- It can be CSV, when a comma separated, unformatted text is returned, with one header line
and subsequent objects in a new line, attributed separated by a comma
- It can be XML, not yet implemented
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