Andrew Cooper
Aug 15, 2023    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

Brilliant orange, the old double star observers went a little crazy here listing companions as far down the alphabet as L in WDS, only one of these appears to be physically associated, the WDS B companion is a 14.4 magnitude star at 30", beyond the rach on my telescope tonight, the galaxy NGC 404 is easily visible 7' northwest

Captain William Henry Smyth
Jul 16, 1832    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A bright star with a distant telescopic companion. A 2, fine yellow; B 12, pale blue, —and there are several small stars in the field, of which two form a coarse pair in the sp quadrant. The delineations of the Northern Fish and the body of Andromeda here create much confusion; as the Arabs named β Andromeda, Jenb-al-muselselah, or the chained woman's side, and also Batn-al-hút, or the fish's belly. This star, once in the Fish's head, is now placed on the Lady's right hip, over the Northern Fish's mouth, whence it was called Mirach, from the mantle or apron round her; but it became the Miræ of the Alphonsine Tables, which term was substituted —on Scaliger's suggestion— by Mízár, girdle; an amendment, however, that confounded it with Ursæ Majoris. There has been some difference of opinion as to its comparative brilliance. It is certainly rather dim for the above rating, and Ptolemy enrolled it as γ only in lustre; but Ulugh Beigh, and all the moderns, have ranked it of the second magnitude.

This star was of importance, as forming the twenty-eighth and last Lunar Mansion, called Al Risha, the cord, because the vertical bight of the Fish's kheït formed its boundary. The famous Manázil-al-Kamar, i.e. Lunar Mansions, constituted a supposed broad circle, in Oriental astronomy, divided into twenty-eight unequal parts, corresponding with the moon's course, and therefore called the abodes of the moon. This was not a bad arrangement for a certain class of gazers, since the luminary was observed to be in or near one or other of these parts, or constellations, every night. Though tampered with by astrologers, these Lunar Mansions were probably the earliest step in ancient astronomy.

An imaginary line drawn from α Ceti, through the two stars in the head of Aries, will strike upon Mirach; or it will be at a right angle north of the line carried from β Pegasi to α Andromedæ, and extended as far again westward : or in the directions of the poet:

From Markab run a line beneath th' imprison'd Lady's head,
And over delta on her back to Mirach 'twill be led.

Proper motions in space are assigned to Mirach, of which, from careful comparisons, these are the best values:

    P....   RA +0".35  Dec. -0".10
    B...       -0".29       -0".07
    A....      +0".21       -0".08
   [Hipparchos +0".1759     -0".1122]

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

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