We present and describe a catalog of galaxy photometric redshifts (photo-zs) for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Coadd Data. We use the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique to calculate photo-zs and the Nearest Neighbor Error (NNE) method to
estimate photo-z errors for $sim$ 13 million objects classified as galaxies in the coadd with $r < 24.5$. The photo-z and photo-z error estimators are trained and validated on a sample of $sim 83,000$ galaxies that have SDSS photometry and spectroscopic redshifts measured by the SDSS Data Release 7 (DR7), the Canadian Network for Observational Cosmology Field Galaxy Survey (CNOC2), the Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe Data Release 3(DEEP2 DR3), the VIsible imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph - Very Large Telescope Deep Survey (VVDS) and the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey. For the best ANN methods we have tried, we find that 68% of the galaxies in the validation set have a photo-z error smaller than $sigma_{68} =0.031$. After presenting our results and quality tests, we provide a short guide for users accessing the public data.
We present details of the construction and characterization of the coaddition of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82 ugriz imaging data. This survey consists of 275 deg$^2$ of repeated scanning by the SDSS camera of $2.5arcdeg$ of $delta$ over $-5
0arcdeg le alpha le 60arcdeg$ centered on the Celestial Equator. Each piece of sky has $sim 20$ runs contributing and thus reaches $sim2$ magnitudes fainter than the SDSS single pass data, i.e. to $rsim 23.5$ for galaxies. We discuss the image processing of the coaddition, the modeling of the PSF, the calibration, and the production of standard SDSS catalogs. The data have $r$-band median seeing of 1.1arcsec, and are calibrated to $le 1%$. Star color-color, number counts, and psf size vs modelled size plots show the modelling of the PSF is good enough for precision 5-band photometry. Structure in the psf-model vs magnitude plot show minor psf mis-modelling that leads to a region where stars are being mis-classified as galaxies, and this is verified using VVDS spectroscopy. As this is a wide area deep survey there are a variety of uses for the data, including galactic structure, photometric redshift computation, cluster finding and cross wavelength measurements, weak lensing cluster mass calibrations, and cosmic shear measurements.
We present new results of our program to systematically search for strongly lensed galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) imaging data. In this study six strong lens systems are presented which we have confirmed with follow-up spectroscopy a
nd imaging using the 3.5m telescope at the Apache Point Observatory. Preliminary mass models indicate that the lenses are group-scale systems with velocity dispersions ranging from 466-878 km s^{-1} at z=0.17-0.45 which are strongly lensing source galaxies at z=0.4-1.4. Galaxy groups are a relatively new mass scale just beginning to be probed with strong lensing. Our sample of lenses roughly doubles the confirmed number of group-scale lenses in the SDSS and complements ongoing strong lens searches in other imaging surveys such as the CFHTLS (Cabanac et al 2007). As our arcs were discovered in the SDSS imaging data they are all bright ($rlesssim22$), making them ideally suited for detailed follow-up studies.
