Andrew Cooper
Aug 20, 2021    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Rich orange, no companion noted, 93 Cet is visible 16' north

Captain William Henry Smyth
Nov 7, 1833    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A standard Greenwich star, in front of the lower jaw, with a distant companion. A 2½, bright orange; B 10, pale grey. This is a curious object under a moderate power, on account of a decided blue star in the field, north of it, of the 5½ magnitude. The leader is assigned proper motions in space, to the following amount:

    P....  RA -0".08  Dec. -0".15
    B....     +0".03       -0".10
   [Hipparcos -0".01041    -0".07685]

a Ceti is numbered among the insulated stars, and is called Menkcab, corrupted from Al minkhir, the nose or snout, a name which the Arabians applied, with greater propriety, to λ; but though rated of equal magnitude with β Ceti, it is not now so large. A line from Pollux by Aldebaran, carried nearly as far again, brings the eye to α Ceti; which star, with Hamal, forms the lower points of a gigantic W, of which Aldebaran, the Pleiades, and Algol make the upper portion. The poet says:

To know the bright star in the Whale,
the lower jaw which decks,
From fair Capella send a glance
through Pleiad's beauteous specks;
And bear in mind this cluster fine,
so admirably seen,
From Cetus' head to th' Charioteer,
lies just half-way between.

The figure of this asterism, a veritable monstrum marinum, with its long legs, ears, proboscis, missile tongue, and carnivorous jaws, ought rather to have retained the name 'Ορφοs, Pistrix, as given by Hyginus, than Κητοs, Cetus, whose un-whale-like appendages did not escape the lash of Butler:

Yes, 'tis clear
'Tis Saturn; but what makes him there?
He's got between the Dragon's tail
And further leg behind o' th' Whale.

Stanislaus Lubienietzki, in his Theatrum Comelicum, 1667, attempted to lop off some of these redundancies; but in fishifying the animal he has given him so capacious a mouth and throat, that a Munchausen's ship might well have sailed in. Indeed, the leading distinctions of a whale seem to have been overlooked by all the celestial delineators.

Although this fish, as shown in Morell's edition of Aratus, 1559, is a very queer-looking creature, yet it is better drawn than some later figures, in that it has no legs; but as it is so furnished in the MS. of Cicero's translation of Aratus in the British Museum, it is evident that the monster is connected with the tale of Andromeda. Cetus, is, however, the most extensive constellation of the firmament, occupying the large space to the south under Pisces and Aries; and it was one of the standard old 48 asterisms. Its constituents have been thus numbered:

    Ptolemy   . . . 22 stars     Bayer    . . .  27 stars
    Copernicus  . . 22           Hevelius . . .  46
    Tycho Brahe . . 21           Flamsteed  . .  97
    Kepler    . . . 25           Bode   . . . . 301

The Arabians appear to have given great attention to this fish. From a fancied resemblance of the stars of the head to the Kaff-al-Khadíb in Cassiopea, they designated α, δ, λ, μ, and ξ, Kaff-al-jidhmà. the maimed hand; the five stars on the body—η, θ, τ, ζ and ν—were al-na'ámát, the ostriches; and φ 1, 2, 3, and 4, which are nearly in a straight line across the tail, were called al-nidhâm, the necklace.

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

Drawings, descriptions, and CCD photos are copyright Andrew Cooper unless otherwise noted, no usage without permission.

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