Andrew Cooper
Jul 30, 2020    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 61x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Orange, no companion noted, in the field with 27Cet, 28Cet, and 30Cet, a lovely low power field

Captain William Henry Smyth
Dec 6, 1838    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A bright star with a companion, in a barren field. A 3½, yellow; B 10, livid, only two other distant stars in view, one of which is in the sf, and the other in the nf quadrant. It is on the monster's flank, towards the tail, as implied by Dheneb-al-Jenúbí, where it has been mistaken for the Rana Secunda of the Arabs; but which is β Ceti. As this star is useful in the neighbouring alignments, it may be identified by being exactly at right angles with a line shot from Fom-al-hút and carried 8° beyond β Ceti: and it is on the same vertical with β Andromedæ. A is only marked as of ε magnitude in Ptolemy; while Tycho Brahé and Flamsteed make it 3. Had I not adopted Piazzi's magnitudes for my initial star, I should certainly have put this in the 4th degree. Can it be variable? Its value of proper motion in space has been stated thus:

    P.... RA +0".28  Dec. -0".10
    B....    +0".26       -0".12
    A....    +0".23       -0".13
   [Gaia DR2 +0".2156     -0".1390]

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

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