Lessons Learned from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Operations

TL;DR

This paper shares valuable operational lessons from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, emphasizing the importance of learning from others and applying best practices in large-scale scientific projects.

Contribution

It provides practical insights and lessons learned from managing a large, collaborative astronomical survey, highlighting effective operational principles.

Findings

Successful large-scale survey operations depend on collaboration and learning from prior experiences.

Applying established best practices can improve project outcomes.

Operational principles from SDSS can guide future large scientific endeavors.

Abstract

Astronomy is changing. Large projects, large collaborations, and large budgets are becoming the norm. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is one example of this new astronomy, and in operating the original survey, we put in place and learned many valuable operating principles. Scientists sometimes have the tendency to invent everything themselves but when budgets are large, deadlines are many, and both are tight, learning from others and applying it appropriately can make the difference between success and failure. We offer here our experiences well as our thoughts, opinions, and beliefs on what we learned in operating the SDSS.