The Sixth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

This paper describes the Sixth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. With this data release, the imaging of the northern Galactic cap is now complete. The survey contains images and parameters of roughly 287 million objects over 9583 deg², including scans over a large range of Galactic latitudes and longitudes. The survey also includes 1.27 million spectra of stars, galaxies, quasars, and blank sky (for sky subtraction) selected over 7425 deg². This release includes much more stellar spectroscopy than was available in previous data releases and also includes detailed estimates of stellar temperatures, gravities, and metallicities. The results of improved photometric calibration are now available, with…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• AP
  Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
• PU
  Princeton University
• OS
  Ohio State University
• UO
  University of Washington
• JH
  Johns Hopkins University
• UO
  University of Pittsburgh
• CW
  Case Western Reserve University
• DU
  Drexel University
• UB
  Universität Basel
• UO
  University of Portsmouth
• NM
  New Mexico State University
• CA
  Chinese Academy of Sciences
• M
  Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
• MF
  Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik
• MF
  Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
• SA
  Science and Technology Facilities Council

  Awards: ST/F002599/1, PP/E00105X/1
• UN
  U.S. Naval Observatory
• F
  Fermilab
• LA
  Los Alamos National Laboratory