Arp’s Peculiar Galaxies
Page 14 of 18
Arp observations 131-140 of 179 total to date.
| Thumbnail | Title/link | Arp Category | Date Observed | Observer Description |
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Arp 262 / UGC 12856 | Galaxies with irregular clumps | 2024-10-28 22:53:00 | Arp classified this object into "Galaxies with Irregular Clumps". His remarks add, "Some resolution into knots." Both statements are true enough: on the N (top) end it does resolve into knots. It's all a bit surrealistic, like Salvador Dali's clock in The Persistence of Time. While I don't understand the details, Arp was personally invested in the idea that galaxies didn't merge in order to explain interactions he perceived between galaxies of different red shifts. From the little I've read, the argument swung on the "probabilities" of distant galaxies aligning visually by chance. This strikes me as deeply flawed, since there's a selection bias working in the other direction: it's particularly odd in cases like this observation where the visual evidence of merger seems so compelling. In the middle, there's a nearly intact spiral. At the S end, a high-brightness spiral dwarf appears to be in the process of merging, moving in at a more extreme NE to SE tilt. The bend in the middle is a reaction to the relative motion. |
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Arp 263 / NGC 3239 | Galaxies with irregular clumps | 2025-04-18 00:12:00 | Arp categorizes this as a galaxy with irregular clumps, and notes, "Diffuse outer filaments, bright knots inside." It certainly has all of that. The modern consensus seems to be that this is a post-merger galaxy that hasn't yet fully assimilated its quarry. Started observing this after transit. As it descended, the lowering angle made it more susceptible to cloud cover. I eventually had to give us with less than 30m. |
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Arp 264 / NGC 3104 | Galaxies with irregular clumps | 2026-03-09 21:21:00 | This is an irregular galaxy, listed as apparent visual magnitude of 13.2. This is another instance where the sensitivity of my CMOS camera trumps the 200" telescope imaging on spectrographic film in terms of sensitivity. The 200" gathers 625x as much light as my 8", but the film was so insensitive!. I had to give my image more space in the side by side comparison with Arp's. The stars align perfectly, but my sensor rendered the shadowy exterior so much more fully that the N and S ends of the galaxy would have been truncated if I'd followed Arp's cropping. |
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Arp 266 / NGC 4861 | Galaxies with irregular clumps | 2026-03-01 23:37:00 | Even though this galaxy resembles a inchworm, it is profoudly unusual. Note the galactic center is at the bottom of the frame; the bright spot at the other end is a superimposed star. What created such a bizarre shape? I certainly can't say. Even the Hubble image doesn't tell you very much. |
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Arp 268 / Holmberg II / UGC 4305 | Galaxies with irregular clumps | 2024-03-26 00:01:45 | This appears to be an irregular dwarf galaxy with low surface brightness, and a series of small structures above the surface. They remind me of structures I've seen in other contexts, similar to NGC 604 outside of the Triangulum Galaxy, or even M42 within our own galaxy. Certainly they could be star birthing regions. Considering this was a full moon, I was pleased with this capture in SharpCap. |
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Arp 269 / Cocoon Galaxy Revisit | Galaxies with connected arms | 2026-02-27 00:18:00 | A careful observation using the monochrome Apollo-M mini late in the evening with the Cocoon high, and transparency improving. Recaptured a set of darks, focused in place. Pleased with the result. |
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Arp 270 / NGC 3395-6 | Galaxies with connected arms | 2024-05-31 22:54:00 | Two strongly interacting galaxies, both spiral originally and now significantly distorted by the interaction. There is a tiny and very faint galaxy, IC 2605 which appears to extend the right arm of NGC 3395, the upper galaxy in our image. It's not at all obvious, but showed up in the Astrometry annotation. It has a higher redshift than the two larger galaxies, and is apparently far in the background. Arp famously argued that galaxies with different red shifts could interact, but this apparently is not one of those examples. |
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Arp 271 / NGC 5426 / NGC 5427 | Galaxies with connected arms | 2024-05-13 01:55:00 | Captured at the end of a long evening. I'd been focused on Messier objects due to so-so transparency, but decided it had cleared up enough at 1:30 AM. Wonderful, relatively bright observation showing two spiral galaxies heavily interacting. Whether it's a future merger or a near miss is beyond my expertise, but the exchange is clearly visible. Arp remarked: "Arms linked. Note bifurcation in arm of N spiral." I believe Arp is describing the bottom arm of NGC 5427 which is rooted in another arm rather than in the nucleus. There is actually faint glow at the point of intersection. I'm tempted to speculate but won't. |
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Arp 272 / NGC 6050 / IC 1179 | Galaxies with connected arms | 2025-06-30 01:09:00 | Arp placed this in the "Double Galaxies - Connected Arms" category. His observing notes added: "Arms join at dense knot or nucleus...." My interpretation from the beginning was that we were really looking at 3 galaxies: NGC 6050 (lower left), IC 1179 (upper right) and a third, smaller galaxy at the end of NGC 6050's arm (upper left). Arp's comment suggests he saw the nucleus but wasn't willing to suggest it's a 3rd galaxy. My research discovered the Hubble image you can find in the gallery which confirms it is a third galaxy. |
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Arp 273 / UGC 1810 / UGC 1813 | Galaxies with connected arms | 2024-11-05 20:51:00 | This is a very mysterious duo of galaxies. The smaller, to the left, appears like a ribbon because it has been largely stripped of its envelope of stars. The larger, right, is a weirdly distorted, barred spiral, in 3/4 view. To be clear, the bright object in the center is actually a star, not the galactic nucleus. The actual nucleus is just above it, and therefore asymmetrically located within the spiral. The top arm has been pulled left. The bottom half of the spiral is partially stripped and what remains is heavily knotted: this is less obvious in my capture, but very clear in Arp's. I see that some sources explain the mystery by the smaller galaxy having actually passed through the larger. This is certainly consistent with what i can see, particularly in Arp's capture, which I "printed" as a positive image because I felt it showed the chaos better. |