Andrew Cooper
Aug 26, 2023    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

An attractive pair with a 6th magnitude white and an 8th magnitude companion visible 30" west-northwest, the similar pair χ Tau lies 1°47' north-northwest

Gaia EDR3 data shows this pair to share well matched parallax and proper motion

Captain William Henry Smyth
Dec 24, 1835    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A neat double star, on the tip of the Bull's left ear, at rather more than one-third of the distance from the Pleiades to ζ. A 7 silver white; B 8½, purple; and there are several small stars in the field. This is a fair object for a moderate telescope; being 109 ♅. IV., thus measured when first registered:

    Pos. 291°12'  Dist. 28".08  Ep. 1782.90
   [WDS  291°           29".10      2019   ]

On comparing these data with the observations of H. and S. in 1821, of Σ. ten years afterwards, and my own at the epoch stated, there seems to be no appreciable change during an interval of fifty-three years; though Piazzi's remark— "Duplex. Comes 8* magnit. pracedit 1".8 temporis, 10" circiter ad Boream"—interposes a mystification. Meantime it has been slightly affected with proper motion, the amount of which is thus severally given :

    P.... RA +0".26  Dec. -0".11
    B....    +0".06       -0".01
   [Gaia DR2 +0".004812   -0".008543]

― 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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