The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Creators: name: Abazajian, Kevork N.
name: Adelman-McCarthy, Jennifer K.
name: Agüeros, Marcel Andre
name: Allam, Sahar S.
name: Allende Prieto, Carlos
name: An, Deokkeun
name: Anderson, Kurt S. J.
name: Anderson, Scott F.
name: Annis, James
name: Bahcall, Neta A.
name: Bailer-Jones, C. A. L.
name: Barentine, J. C.
name: Bassett, Bruce A.
name: Becker, Andrew C.
name: Beers, Timothy C.
name: Bell, Eric F.
name: Belokurov, Vasily
name: Berlind, Andreas A.
name: Berman, Eileen F.
name: Bernardi, Mariangela
name: Bickerton, Steven J.
name: Bizyaev, Dmitry
name: Blakeslee, John P.
name: Blanton, Michael R.
name: Bochanski, John J.
name: Boroski, William N.
name: Brewington, Howard J.
name: Brinchmann, Jarle
name: Brinkmann, J.
name: Brunner, Robert J.
name: Budavári, Tamás
name: Carey, Larry N.
name: Carliles, Samuel
name: Carr, Michael A.
name: Castander, Francisco J.
name: Cinabro, David
name: Connolly, A. J.
name: Csabai, István
name: Cunha, Carlos E.
name: Czarapata, Paul C.
name: Davenport, James R. A.
name: De Haas, Ernst
name: Dilday, Ben
name: Doi, Mamoru
name: Eisenstein, Daniel J.
name: Evans, Michael L.
name: Evans, N. W.
name: Fan, Xiaohui
name: Friedman, Scott D.
name: Frieman, Joshua A.
name: Fukugita, Masataka
name: Gänsicke, Boris T.
name: Gates, Evalyn
name: Gillespie, Bruce
name: Gilmore, G.
name: Gonzalez, Belinda
name: Gonzalez, Carlos F.
name: Grebel, Eva K.
name: Gunn, James E.
name: Györy, Zsuzsanna
name: Hall, Patrick B.
name: Harding, Paul
name: Harris, Frederick H.
name: Harvanek, Michael
name: Hawley, Suzanne L
name: Hayes, Jeffrey J. E.
name: Heckman, Timothy M.
name: Hendry, John A.
name: Hennessy, Gregory S.
name: Hindsley, Robert B.
name: Hoblitt, J.
name: Hogan, Craig J.
name: Hogg, David W.
name: Holtzman, Jon A.
name: Hyde, Joseph B.
name: Ichikawa, Shin-Ichi
name: Ichikawa, Takashi
name: Im, Myungshin
name: Ivezić, Željko
name: Jester, Sebastian
name: Jiang, Linhua
name: Johnson, Jennifer A.
name: Jorgensen, Anders M.
name: Jurić, Mario
name: Kent, Stephen M.
name: Kessler, R.
name: Kleinman, S. J.
name: Knapp, G. R.
name: Konishi, Kohki
name: Kron, Richard G.
name: Krzesinski, Jurek
name: Kuropatkin, Nikolay
name: Lampeitl, Hubert
name: Lebedeva, Svetlana
name: Lee, Myung Gyoon
name: Lee, Young Sun
name: Leger, R. French
name: Lépine, Sébastien
name: Li, Nolan
name: Lima, Marcos
name: Lin, Huan
name: Long, Daniel C.
name: Loomis, Craig P.
name: Loveday, Jon
name: Lupton, Robert H.
name: Magnier, Eugene
name: Malanushenko, Olena
name: Malanushenko, Viktor
name: Mandelbaum, Rachel
name: Margon, Bruce
name: Marriner, John P.
name: Martínez-Delgado, David
name: Matsubara, Takahiko
name: McGehee, Peregrine M.
name: McKay, Timothy A.
name: Meiksin, Avery
name: Morrison, Heather L.
name: Mullally, Fergal
name: Munn, Jeffrey A.
name: Murphy, Tara
name: Nash, Thomas
name: Nebot, Ada
name: Neilsen Jr., Eric H.
name: Newberg, Heidi Jo
name: Newman, Peter R.
name: Nichol, Robert C.
name: Nicinski, Tom
name: Nieto-Santisteban, Maria
name: Nitta, Atsuko
name: Okamura, Sadanori
name: Oravetz, Daniel J.
name: Ostricker, Jeremiah P.
name: Owen, Russell
name: Padmanabhan, Nikhil
name: Pan, Kaike
name: Park, Changbom
name: Pauls, George
name: Peoples Jr., John
name: Percival, Will J.
name: Pier, Jeffrey R.
name: Pope, Adrian C.
name: Pourbaix, Dimitri
name: Price, Paul A.
name: Purger, Norbert
name: Quinn, Thomas
name: Raddick, M. Jordan
name: Re Fiorentin, Paola
name: Richards, Gordon T.
name: Richmond, Michael W.
name: Riess, Adam G.
name: Rix, Hans-Walter
name: Rockosi, Constance M.
name: Sako, Masao
name: Schlegel, David J.
name: Schneider, Donald P.
name: Scholz, Ralf-Dieter
name: Schreiber, Matthias R.
name: Schwope, Axel D.
name: Seljak, Uroš
name: Sesar, Branimir
name: Sheldon, Erin
name: Shimasaku, Kazu
name: Sibley, Valena C.
name: Simmons, A. E.
name: Sivarani, Thirupathi
name: Smith, J. Allyn
name: Smith, Martin C.
name: Smolčić, Vernesa
name: Sneddin, Stephanie A.
name: Stebbins, Albert
name: Steinmetz, Matthias
name: Stoughton, Chris
name: Strauss, Michael A.
name: SubbaRao, Mark
name: Suto, Yasushi
name: Szalay, Alexander S.
name: Szapudi, István
name: Szkody, Paula
name: Tanaka, Masayuki
name: Tegmark, Max
name: Teodoro, Luis F. A.
name: Thakar, Aniruddha R.
name: Tremonti, Christy A.
name: Tucker, Douglas L.
name: Uomoto, Alan
name: Vanden Berk, Daniel E.
name: Vandenberg, Jan
name: Vidrih, S.
name: Vogeley, Michael S.
name: Voges, Wolfgang
name: Vogt, Nicole P.
name: Wadadekar, Yogesh
name: Watters, Shannon
name: Weinberg, David H.
name: West, Andrew A.
name: White, Simon D. M.
name: Wilhite, Brian C.
name: Wonders, Alainna C.
name: Yanny, Brian
name: Yocum, D. R.
name: York, Donald G.
name: Zehavi, Idit
name: Zibetti, Stefano
name: Zucker, Daniel B.
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2009
Subjects: Astrophysics
Stars--Observations
Imaging systems in astronomy
Astronomy

description: This paper describes the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), marking the completion of the original goals of the SDSS and the end of the phase known as SDSS-II. It includes 11,663 deg² of imaging data, with most of the ~2000 deg² increment over the previous data release lying in regions of low Galactic latitude. The catalog contains five-band photometry for 357 million distinct objects. The survey also includes repeat photometry on a 120° long, 2fdg5 wide stripe along the celestial equator in the Southern Galactic Cap, with some regions covered by as many as 90 individual imaging runs. We include a co-addition of the best of these data, going roughly 2 mag fainter than the main survey over 250 deg². The survey has completed spectroscopy over 9380 deg²; the spectroscopy is now complete over a large contiguous area of the Northern Galactic Cap, closing the gap that was present in previous data releases. There are over 1.6 million spectra in total, including 930,000 galaxies, 120,000 quasars, and 460,000 stars. The data release includes improved stellar photometry at low Galactic latitude. The astrometry has all been recalibrated with the second version of the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog, reducing the rms statistical errors at the bright end to 45 milliarcseconds per coordinate. We further quantify a systematic error in bright galaxy photometry due to poor sky determination; this problem is less severe than previously reported for the majority of galaxies. Finally, we describe a series of improvements to the spectroscopic reductions, including better flat fielding and improved wavelength calibration at the blue end, better processing of objects with extremely strong narrow emission lines, and an improved determination of stellar metallicities.