The Cambridge Photographic Atlas of Galaxies Book Review
The Cambridge Photographic Atlas of Galaxies by Michael Konig and Stefan Binnewies
I really enjoy looking at my Cambridge Atlas of the Messier objects when imaging to see what I am looking for and what my final images should look like. So I was really pleased to see there was now an atlas of the galaxies as well.
This is a hardcover full colour book and it starts with a beautiful inner cover (both front and back) of the galaxies displayed on a constellation map providing the name of the galaxy and its co-ordinates.
The contents section is very clear listing all the galaxies covered in the book. There are over 320 pages of information.
Before we begin running through all the different galaxies there is an introduction section detailing the first galaxy catalogues and the nature of galaxies.
Each section in the book is split up into galaxy type with spiral galaxies being first. The beginning of each section covers the classification of that type of galaxy and its morphology and astrophysics.
The first galaxy in the book is NGC45. Each galaxy in turn is displayed in full colour with the images taken by the acclaimed amateur astrophotographer and these images are brilliant, very professional. There is a write up about each galaxy as well as a data section which provides us with details such as the constellation, RA and Dec, Brightness, type, names of the photographers, telescope used to image it, the imaging camera name, exposure time and location where it was imaged. Some of the galaxies have information on how the astrophotographer imaged the object as well.
Most galaxies in the book have their own page, with some having two pages where one full page displays a large full colour image.
As well as spiral galaxies there is a section on barred spiral galaxies, elliptical galaxies, irregular galaxies, dwarf galaxies, ring galaxies, galaxy groups and clusters and finally active galaxies, quasars and gravitational lenses. There is a bibliography and index at the rear of the book.
There are more than 250 galaxies featured in the book from both the northern and southern hemisphere. You will find galaxies from all catalogues including Messier, Abell and Holmberg.
Overall
What makes The Cambridge Photographic Atlas of Galaxies great for me is the really fantastic full colour images and that each galaxy has information on how that image was taken. This is really useful to the Field of View that was achieved with a certain diameter telescope and what camera was used along with the exposure times. This makes the book a brilliant reference book.