Captain William Henry Smyth
Jan 15, 1832    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A double star sp the larva, or mask of Medusa; which may be found by carrying a line from Mirphak through Algol and about 3° to the south; and a perpendicular to that point will cut 20 Persei at nearly 1½° to the eastward of it. A 6½, pale white; B 10, sky-blue. This is a neat test object, being 60 ♅. III.; and supposing with H., that Sir William by error noted down the quadrant as sf instead of sp, the first measures are:

    Pos. 239°30'  Dist. 14".30  Ep. 1782.64

This supposition was confirmed by S., No. 420:

    Pos. 236°10'  Dist. 13".88  Ep. 1824.91
   [WDS  237°           14".00      2014   ]

whence, with the further corroboration of my observations, it is shown that there has been little or no change in an interval of half a century. Since this conclusion was arrived at, Σ.'s grand Catalogue has been received, and, on scrutiny, all the conditions of this case are therein placed beyond doubt.

A sensible proper motion in space is attributed to the leader of this compound, the values and directions of which are thus given:

    P....  RA +0".18  Dec. -0".09
    Sr...     +0".15       -0".10
    B....     +0".09       -0".07
    T....     +0".12       -0".09
   [Hipparcos +0".04679    -0".07890]

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

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