Andrew Cooper
Oct 23, 2022    Waikoloa, HI (map)
28cm f/10 SCT, NexStar 11" GyPSy @ 127x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

Blue-white with an 8th magnitude companion visible 4" east, on the eastern margin of the bright coarse cluster NGC 1981 in the Orion Nebula complex

Gaia DR3 data exhibits similar parallax and proper motion in the pair

Captain William Henry Smyth
Oct 16, 1835    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A delicate double star in the wide-spread cluster on Orion's sword. A 6, lucid white; B 9, pale blue. The principal members of this group of stars, are of the 6th and 7th magnitudes, with some smaller; and from their brightness and disposition form a capital test for the light of a telescope. It was examined by H., and entered on his Catalogue of 1830; whence it may lay claim to being an aggregated and connected assemblage, and, comparatively speaking, not very remote from us.

― 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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