Even for a simple amateur astrophotographer [1] the SDSS data is invaluable. It powers most of the target selection, and provides accurate coordinates for most astronomical objects. Combined with Plate Solving, it makes my life much easier [2]. Take for example a well known tool "Sequence Generator Pro", I only have to type in a name and I can start imaging [3]. I can't thank the people enough who worked on this. I'm soon upgrading the telescope with a set of Sloan photometric filters (used in the survey) [4], and particularly interested in expanding my images with Near Infrared data. Which can also give very pretty pictures [5]

[1]: my 2017 images https://www.flickr.com/photos/joelkuiper/38496747325/

[2]: http://cosmo.nyu.edu/hogg/research/2006/09/28/astrometry_goo...

[3]: https://www.flickr.com/photos/joelkuiper/24582661547

[4]: http://astrodon.com/store/p12/Astrodon_Photometrics_Sloan_Fi...

[5] http://trappedphotons.com/files/tmp/Making%20Pretty%20Pictur...