Andrew Cooper
Oct 13, 2023    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

A fine binary, 55Eri A is a rich yellow while 55Eri B is white separated by 9", well matched in magnitude, 56 Eri is visible 19' north-northwest

Captain William Henry Smyth
Feb 13, 1832    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A neat double star, under the nf extreme of the River, and close to the four vertical stars of the 4th magnitude, which Kirch classed in 1688 as Sceptrum Brandenburgicum: and which was revived a century afterwards by Bode. A and B are both 7½, and yellowish white; being Nos. 172 and 173 of Piazzi's Hora IV., and they constitute 99 ♅. III., being thus first registered:

    Pos. 314°09'  Dist. 9".16   Ep. 1783.08

It was measured by H. and S., with these results:

    Pos. 318°20'  Dist. 10".51  Ep. 1821.97
   [WDS  319°            9".30      2018   ]

From these data, and a position of Σ. in 1820=322°01', a slight orbital increase of angle was presumed, in a direction sf np, or direct; but this is not confirmed by the later observations.

It may be found by the out-of-door observer, by running a line from Pollux through Betelgeuze, and leading it rather more than half as far again into the south-west, where it forms the vertex of an isosceles triangle, the base of which is formed by Rigel and β Eridani.

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

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