Andrew Cooper
Feb 19, 2020    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 61x
Seeing: 7 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Bright, blue-white, no companion visible

Captain William Henry Smyth
Dec 28, 1835    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A bright star with a distant companion, in a barren field near the tip of the Ram's horn, being the middle one of the three stars known as the Ram's head. A 3, pearly white; B 11, dusky, a still smaller star in the sf quadrant. This object was named Sheratan or Sharataïn, the dual of sharat, a sign, signifying γ and β, the two bright stars in the head of the Ram; with an interval between them and α, says Kazwíní, of two kaus, by eye-measurement: said kaus being used as synonymous with the astronomical ell of 2°. An imaginary line from the Pleiades to Markab, passes between them in the mid-distance of that line. They formed the first Lunar Mansion, if Kazwíní is preferred to Dr. Sedillot. A proper motion is given to A of the following value :

    P....  RA +0".14  Dec. -0".23
    B....     +0".12       -0".11
   [Hipparcos +0".09874    -0".11041]

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