Two challenges have been made regarding the Gregory and Thompson 1978 discovery priority of cosmic voids and the extended structure (called “bridges”) that connect one rich cluster with its nearest neighbor(s). The primary challenge is by the Center for Astrophysics group called CfA2 headed by Geller and her late collaborator Huchra. A less significant challenge is by Chincarini, one of the Arizona redshift survey members. These issues are discussed point by point starting with the CfA2 challenge. Table 8.1 summarizes the Arizona work as of 1984–1985 (just before the CfA2 survey began). This table as well as the extensive “timeline” table (Table 8.2) demonstrate that the CfA2 survey was a latecomer in the pioneering period and represents nothing more than an incremental step forward. The Chincarini challenge is based on data that belonged to our Arizona consortium (a subgroup headed by Tarenghi) and was published by Chincarini without permission.

Tifft and Gregory began to collect Coma cluster redshifts at Steward Observatory’s 90-inch telescope in the mid-1970s when Chincarini and Rood were doing similar work at the Kitt Peak 84-inch telescope. Tifft branched into non-cosmological redshift work while Gregory and Thompson began to collaborate. For our redshift survey work, we adopted a new strategy of mapping the galaxy distribution between two rich clusters – Coma and A1367. Another collaborative effort to study the Hercules supercluster was started by Tarenghi that involved Tifft, Chincarini, Rood, and Thompson. The Gregory and Thompson work was completed first and was submitted for publication in 1977 immediately before IAU Symposium No. 79. Chincarini took preliminary Hercules redshift data and published them on his own in Nature. A new team – Kirshner, Oemler, Schechter, and Shectman – discovered the Bootes void in 1981. Meanwhile, the first Center for Astrophysics team (CfA1) published a shallow all-sky redshift survey in 1982, and in 1986 the CfA2 team published their “Slice of the Universe” redshift map.