Authors: Jeff Kanipe & Dennis Webb Hardcover: 400 pages In 1966,
astronomer Halton Arp compiled his Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies,
which featured 338 images of some of the strangest looking
galaxies and galaxy groups then known to exist. The purpose of
the Atlas, Arp stated in his preface, was to graphically present
structural peculiarities in galaxies "in order to build a
realistic picture of what galaxies are really like." At the
time, astronomers were struggling to formulate a workable
taxonomy of "symmetrical" galaxies using classification schemes
such as Edwin Hubble's tuning fork diagram. But the Atlas was
comprised of the "Elephant Men" of galaxies, and their
deformations challenged and defied astronomers' attempts at
galaxy classification. Although the Atlas itself has been long
out of print, this book not only reproduces all 338 of the
original Atlas of Peculiar Galaxiesimages, including Arp's
preface, it also presents new images of all Arp galaxies taken
by amateur astronomers, along with finder charts