arp 1 (ngc 2857)

  celestron cg9 1/4, starlightxpress mx716, 32 minutes

  arp 1 is the almost perfect face-on spiral in the upper left corner.  this is the first of many fields that will include two, three, or even four arps.  the pair in the lower right is arp 285.  arp 1 is in dr. arp's class low surface brightness (lsb) spirals.  the atlas note is "high contrast print of low surface brightness spiral".  since arp's atlas was published, so many lsb galaxies have been discovered that it probably would not be considered unusual today.

this image received the award of best astrophoto at the 2004 texas star party.  i'm not sure why, since it is a very mediocre image.  it was either the composition, which i did not really control, the fact that it was shot, processed, and printed at the star party, or because i had a lot of friends there.  i suspect the latter.

atlas image