Plotting a BOSS Stellar Spectrum and Best Fit
This tutorial uses sdss-access to retrieve spectra of an identified white dwarf, then plots the spectrum and best fit model.
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.
Authors: Adam Wheeler, John Donor
Last modified: 2026-03-27 12:24:54