For anyone interested in astronomy who would like to try their hand at some small projects using real data, the SDSS website has some guides to help you through

For anyone interested in astronomy who would like to try their hand at some small projects using real data, the SDSS website has some guides to help you through a few projects here: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr14/en/proj/projhome.aspx http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr14/en/proj/projhome.aspx Some of the advanced projects are to make an HR diagram, classify stellar spectra, and calculate the redshift of quasars. Of course, all the data is public so the guides are just a start --- you can keep going in any interesting direction. It doesn't take long to get to the point where you're doing real research. It's pretty cool that thanks to this project anyone with an Internet connection can reproduce fundamental astronomical results for themselves.