Arp’s Peculiar Galaxies
Page 8 of 9
Arp observations 71-80 of 89 total to date.
| Thumbnail | Title/link | Arp Category | Date Observed | Observer Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Arp 269 / Cocoon Galaxy | Galaxies with connected arms | 2024-02-19 17:55:00 | This is just a fun EAA object. Relatively large with lots of detail. Loved capturing it! The connected arms appear to have been separate galaxies at one point... one large and distorted, the other small and spiral. |
 |
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 not one of those examples. |
 |
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 object due to so-so transparency, but decided it had cleared up enough at 1:30 AM. Wonderful, relatively bright observation showing two spriral galaxies heavily interacting. Whether it's a future merger or a near miss is beyond my expertise, but the exchange is clearly visible. |
 |
Arp 273 | 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 spiral, in 3/4 view, viewing from the top left.. To be clear, the bright center is actually a star, not the galactic center. The actual galactic center 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 largely missing: this is not 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. A this is certainly consistent with what i can see. |
 |
Arp 278 / NGC 7253A-B | Interacting galaxies | 2023-10-23 00:00:00 | This was my first direct experience with "Arp Peculiar Galaxies" while participating in the Cloudy Nights EAA Forum October Challenge. Once I found the target, it was a straight forward capture, which I enjoyed immensely. It appears to be two galaxies merging. Is it possible that the galaxy on the right previously absorbed another galaxy? That could explain the downward bend of its disk. |
 |
Arp 280 / NGC 3769 | Interacting galaxies | 2024-04-21 23:53:00 | NGC 3769 is an elongated, spiral galaxy of magnitude 11.7, while NGC 3769a, located in the right of the image, and slightly obscured, is magnitude 14.7. Below (north) of NGC 3769 is a small smudge described as a 'knot' in the Arp atlas, which could be a dwarf galaxy. |
 |
Arp 281 / Whale Galaxy | Galaxies with infall and attraction | 2024-02-19 00:00:55 | This is a large, relatively bright target which is fun to capture. Arp categorizes this as a galaxy "with infall and attraction", where the most obvious sign is the small galaxy NGC 4627. This appears to the right of the whale, just below center. The "Whale" appears to be an unusually thick spiral galaxy viewed edge-on, with no obvious, additional bulge in the center. There is a small bump towards the top left of the galaxy (the whale's "head") which may be evidence of a prior infall. |
 |
Arp 282 / NGC 169-169A | Galaxies with infall and attraction | 2024-12-12 21:42:00 | Considering this was captured on a 93% moonlit night, it's pretty amazing, and testament to the power of the Apollo M-mini mono camera. All of the key details, particularly the dust trail to the lower right on IC 1559 (the dwarf galaxy), are visible, which I interpret as stars left behind while the bulk of the dwarf galaxy is drawn into a merger with NGC 169. As usual I prepared a direct comparison with the plate published in Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxy, which shows the ultimate image using 1960s technology. I couldn't resist adding a Hubble Space Telescope image I found on Wikimedia Commons, licensed under a Creative Commons 2.0 license (and anyway, as based on Hubble data, inherently public domain). This shows how much technology improved in roughly 40 years. Of course the idea that I could capture an inferior, albeit adequate, image in half an hour from my back yard is mind blowing. I would have extended the capture, but high clouds were starting to trigger brightness filtering so I shut this capture and moved to another part of the sky. |
 |
Arp 284 / NGC 7714 / NGC 7715 | Galaxies with infall and attraction | 2023-10-10 22:30:32 | There are two galaxies in the frame: NGC 7714 is a distorted spiral galaxy that appears to be attracting stellar material from above and below. Below, the new material deformed a large spiral arm, out- and down-wards. 7714 has a very bright galactic center and the rest of the spiral disk is bright and well formed. NGC 7715 is much less bright, with a dim center. We appear to be viewing it edge-on, distorted into an integral sign shape that runs right to the edge (and behind?) 7714. The fact that 7714 is brighter and more intact suggests it is the dominant galaxy of the two. On reflection, I'm wondering if we're seeing a "near miss" with 7715 passing from bottom left to upper right, behind 7714. The stellar material below 7714 could be the initial stellar material attracted from 7715, which is continuing to give up material via the integral sign as it continues its movement towards the upper right.. |
 |
Arp 285 / NGC 2854 / NGC 2856 | Galaxies with infall and attraction | 2024-02-05 00:23:30 | Captured in a combined image with Arp 1. These two emerged first, substantially brighter than Arp 1. The foreground galaxy, NGC 2854, is a spiral, barred galaxy forming an extended "S" curve pointing directly to NGC 2866 with a hint of a dust lane connecting them (seen more clearly in the Arp plate); NGC 2856 is a more regular, compact spiral. A jet visible in the Arp plate shoots in the general direction of Arp 1. It is indicated in my capture by a spot of increased brightness on the edge of the disc but the jet itself is otherwise invisible. |