Andrew Cooper
Nov 25, 2020    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 5 Transparency: 6 Moon: 0%

Brilliant blue-white, the western star of Orion's belt, a pretty pair with a 7th magnitude star 1' northwest in a rich field scattered with 7 to 9th magnitude stars

Captain William Henry Smyth
Feb 10, 1835    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A standard Greenwich star, coarsely double; it is the leader of the three "bullions" in Orion's girdle or belt, and nearly on the equator. A 2, brilliant white; B 7, pale violet. This object is 10 ♅. V., and has been thus registered:

    ♅.        Pos. 358°10'  Dist. 52".96  Ep. 1779.77
    H. and S.        0°03'        54".87      1822.97
   [WDS              4°           56".20      2017   ]

Weighing the circumstances, these positions agree well enough with Piazzi's description: "alia 7, 8æ magnitudinis in eodem verticali, 51" ad boream;" and the same maybe said of the distances, although ♅. has recorded that he gave "full measure." The coincidence of these results proves the fixity of the large star, and militates against the large amount of proper motion which has been imputed to it; the later assigned values are:

    P....  RA -0".12  Dec. -0".05
    B....     +0".08       -0".04
   [Hipparcos +0".064      -0".069]

This star being the preceder of Orion's beautiful belt, has been popularly distinguished under various names. Among astronomers it is usually known as Mintaka, from the Arabian Mintakah-al-jauza, the giant's belt; which some people also designated al-lekat, the gold grains or spangles. It was also called, with its associates, Jacob's staff, perhaps from the traditional idea mentioned by Eusebius, that Israel was an astrologer. It was also the Golden Yard of seamen, the Three Kings of soothsayers, the Ell-and-yard of tradesmen, the Rake of husbandmen, and Our Lady's Wand of the Catholics. The belt points on one side to Sirius, the brightest of all the stars; and on the other to the Hyades and Pleiades; and the rhymester points out the individual before us:

In the blue vast, Orion's Belt
shines with its bullions three,
And of those bright conspicuous gems
the first as delta see.

― 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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