Andrew Cooper
Nov 7, 2020    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

A wide binary with the 6th magnitude pale yellow primary HD 6479 33" west of 7th magnitude companion HD 6480, 73 Psc is 47' northwest

Gaia DR2 data shows matching parallax and proper motion data for the A and B pair, B is also a 7.21/8.99 1" binary

Captain William Henry Smyth
Nov 18, 1835    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A fine double star, in the centre of the kheït, or ribbon, connecting the two Fishes; and it may be found at rather less than a third of the distance from η Ceti towards β Andromedæ. A 7½ white; B 8, pale lilac. These are 280 and 281 of Piazzi, Hora 0,— and nearly in the middle of the line of stars running from the Whale's crest, which Vitruvius, lib. ix., assures us the Greeks named Hermedone; the which, saith the French commentator, meaneth, les délices de Mercure; but according to B. Baldus, De Ferborum Vilrumanorum, &c., it is merely a knot in the ribbon of Pisces. When William Herschel. registered them 68 iv. they were thus:

    Pos. 85° 12'  Dist. 29".60  Ep. 1782.69

About forty years afterwards, they were re-examined by H. and S.:

    Pos. 82° 40'  Dist. 32".07  Ep. 1821.91

Though as William Herschel had said, "in both measures the weather too windy for accuracy," no rigid deductions were to be drawn from the differences: by my observations fourteen years after those of H. and S., and under satisfactory conditions, they appear to be stationary with respect to each other. But A is accused of having a proper motion in space, very slight, but to the following amount:

        P.... RA  +0".07 Dec. -0".02
        B....     +0".06      -0".11
        T....     -0".02      -0".21
       [Gaia DR2  +0".0338    -0".1266]

― A Cycle of Celestial Objects Vol II, The Bedford Catalogue, William Henry Smyth, 1844

Drawings, descriptions, and CCD photos are copyright Andrew Cooper unless otherwise noted, no usage without permission.

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