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

Blue-white, no companion noted

Captain William Henry Smyth
Nov 21, 1835    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A neat triple star, on the haunch of Aries, closely on the line and about one-third the distance from β Arietis, the middle star of the Ram's head, and Aldebaran. A 5, pale yellow; B 8½, flushed; and C 11, dusky. This superb trio was discovered by ♅ in October, 1782, who describes them as lying in a line 109°19', and pointing towards a fourth star in the sf quadrant. Now A and B certainly do point exactly to the star D, but C is quite out of the line, yet Herschel's estimated distance of " 25" or 26" " appears correct. He says, the smaller stars of 64 I., are "both mere points," neither of which can be seen "except with considerable and long-continued attention;" but they are comparatively so easy in my instrument, that they may have become brighter. It is remarkable that a MS. remark of ♅, adduced by his son, describes C as "easier to be percieved" than B. If this was the case in 1782, and the three stars were then in a line with D, the object merits close watching, both for motion and variability. The Rev. Mr. Dawes saw it triple in his excellent five-foot telescope, thus:

    Pos. AB 125°19'  Dist.3".17   Ep. 1836.78
         AC 111°15'  "impossible"
   [WDS  AB 118°          3".30       2015
         AC 113°         25".50       2018    ]

A slight movement in space is attributed to the large star, amounting to these values:

    P....  RA +0".03  Dec. -0".ll
    B....     +0".05       -0".04
   [Hipparcos +0".00260    -0".01410]

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

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