  In the context of the study of the Integrated Sachs Wolfe effect (ISW), we
construct a template of the projected density distribution up to $z\simeq 0.7$
by using the Luminous Galaxies (LGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR8. We
use a photo-z catalogue trained with more than a hundred thousand galaxies from
BOSS in the SDSS DR8 imaging area. We consider two different LG samples whose
selection matches that of SDSS-III/BOSS: the LOWZ sample ($z\in [0.15,0.5]$)
and the CMASS sample ($z\in[0.4,0.7]$). When building the LG density maps we
use the information from star density, survey footprint, seeing conditions, sky
emission, dust extinction and airmass to explore the impact of these artifacts
on the two LG samples. In agreement with previous studies, we find that the
CMASS sample is particularly sensitive to Galactic stars, which dominate the
contribution to the auto-angular power spectrum below $\ell=7$. Other potential
systematics affect mostly the low multipole range ($\ell\in[2,7]$), but leave
fluctuations on smaller scales practically unchanged. The resulting power
spectra in the multipole range $\ell\in[2,100]$ for the LOWZ, CMASS and
LOWZ+CMASS samples are compatible with linear $\Lambda$CDM expectations and
constant bias values of $b=1.98 \pm 0.11$, $2.08\pm0.14$ and $1.88\pm 0.11$,
respectively, with no traces of non-Gaussianity: $f_{\rm NL}^{\rm local}=59\pm
75$ at 95% confidence level for the full LOWZ+CMASS sample in the range
$\ell\in[4,100]$. After cross-correlating WMAP-9yr data with the LOWZ+CMASS LG
density field, the ISW signal is detected at the level of 1.62--1.69$\,\sigma$.
While this result is in close agreement with predictions from Monte Carlo
simulations in the concordance $\Lambda$CDM model, it cannot rule out by itself
an Einstein-de Sitter scenario, and has a moderately low signal compared to
previous studies conducted on subsets of this LG sample.
