Gillian R. Knapp
  Department of Astrophysical Sciences
  Princeton University
 

The SDSS uses a dedicated 2.5 m telescope to make a simultaneous photometric
survey of a quarter of the sky in five optical bands to a depth of about 23rd
magnitude with photometric precision of about 2%, and a spectroscopic
survey of a million galaxies selected from the photometric data.  The SDSS
has obtained about 2,000 square degrees of imaging and 150,000 spectra, and
the first public data release is scheduled for early June 2001.
 

The SDSS data have been used to investigate astronomical subjects from
asteroids to quasars.  Among the highlights of the first two years of
astronomical results are the discovery of more than a hundred quasars
at z > 4, including several at z > 5 and extending the observed redshift
range above z = 6; the measurement of the mass-to-light ratios of blue and
red galaxies and of clusters by weak lensing: the clean separation of
spiral and elliptical galaxies by color to faint magnitudes: the measurement
of structure in the halo of the Galaxy; the discovery of many field brown
dwarfs and the characterization of spectral types to late T; and the discovery
of new Kuiper Belt objects.