Using BOSS Pixel Masks
This tutorial focuses on working with BOSS Data and how to uses the various masks to flag and exclude bad data.
This tutorial consists of an interactive Python notebook. The results are displayed here to show you what it does, but you can run it yourself if you have an account on the SciServer science platform.
This and other tutorials are available in the SciServer SDSS SAS DR20 Data Volume in the /home/idies/workspace/sdss_sas_dr20/dr20_tutorials directory. See the directions in the expandable section below.
Alternatively, you can download this tutorial notebook from GitHub, if you are logged in.
How to run this tutorial on SciServer
A specific image is available for working with SDSS data. In order to access both SDSS data and the suite of software tools you will need, create an account then when you create a new container follow these steps:
- Choose the
SDSS DR20Docker image. This image contains thesdss_accesspython package, as well asastropy,astroquery,specutilsand other useful libraries. - Include the
SDSS SAS DR20data volume. It will be mounted in the Jupyter session under/home/idies/workspace/sdss_sas_dr20/. - Once in a notebook, make sure the
py312python kernel is selected.
Author: Sean Morrison
Last modified: 2026-03-27 16:24:54