Andrew Cooper
Oct 14, 2023    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

Rich yellow, a 9th magnitude companion visible 80" east-southeast, the companion is a physical pair with the 11th magnitude DY Eri visible 10" northwest of the 9th magnitude HD 26976

All three stars share a very large parallax of 199.6mas, making this trio only 16.3ly distant, as would be expected proper motion is also quite large at 2240.1mas/yr in RA and -3421.8mas/yr in declination

Captain William Henry Smyth
Nov 25, 1837    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A very coarse double star, in the nf reach of the flexuous River, designated Keid, from the Arabic al-Kaïd, the egg-shells; being rather better than a degree to the sf of ο Eridani, or Beïd, the egg, so called from its whiteness, and forming, with the stars around, Az-ha-l-na'ám, the ostrich's nest.

A 5, orange colour; and B 9½, sky blue; other stars follow in the field. This object is remarkable for its amount of proper motion, being, as far as I yet know, second only to 61 Cygni, and therefore an object of very considerable interest*. It is No. 80 ♅ II., and was thus measured:

    Pos. 107°53'  Dist. 81".78  Ep. 1783.00
   [WDS  102°           82".70      2019   ]

which determinations, compared with those of Σ. S. and myself, in a period of fifty-four years, manifest the physical connexion of these stars, since their relative position has scarcely changed a second, although the greater individual has performed so large a proper movement as to amount nearly to 250" to the s.w. The values of the proper motions assigned to A are these:

    P....  RA -2".21  Dec. -3".60
    B....     -2".16       -3".45
    A....     -2".19       -3".45
   [Hipparcos -2".24012    -3".42027]

* While this sheet is actually under revise, the indefatigable Professor Bessel writes me "A series of observations about the annual parallax of a SECOND star (No. 1830 of Groombridge [HD 103095], the proper motion of which over-rates that of 61 Cygni,) which is now going on here, has been interrupted by bad weather. This star is less favourably situated, though its north polar distance is nearly the same as that of the other." Reducing this remarkable star from Groombridge's Catalogue, to the epoch of this Cycle, it will give for RA 1lh 44m, and for Declination 38°52' north. The proper motions are stated to be in RA = +5".167 and in Dec. -5".699.

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

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