Captain William Henry Smyth
Dec 13, 1832    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A most delicate double star, on the Lady's right leg, about 3° from γ Andromedæ, a little south of the line from that star towards β. A 5½, yellow; B 16, bluish. This is No. 1094 of H.'s Fourth Series, and designated by him "a fine specimen of a nebulous star." It is singular that it was marked nebulous by Flamsteed, in the British Catalogue, perhaps in consequence of some small stars near it. It sometimes had a burred aspect to my gaze, and the companion was only caught by intense attention, and then only by evanescent glimpses, being a minimum visibile for my telescope: its position and distance are therefore only estimated. Is the intense blue which some of these mere points of light present, an optical illusion? Pigott suspected A of variability.

The acolyte of this object being of the last degree of faintness [mag 13.27], it was necessary to apply that singular method of obtaining a view, viz. to avert the eye, and direct it to another part of the field. John Herschel accounts for the success of this stratagem, by supposing the lateral portions of the retina to be less exhausted than the central ones.

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

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