Captain William Henry Smyth
Feb 6, 1836    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A neat double star, on the left instep of Pollux. A 5½, light yellow; B 8, purple. This is a very fine object, and the colours so marked, that they cannot be entirely imputed to the illusory effect of contrast. It is 47 ♅ III. s and from a comparison of all the measures, a slight but constant diminution in the angle may be inferred. These are the astro- metric results:

    ♅.        Pos. 179° 54' Dist. 7".95 Ep. 1781.99
    H. and S.      174° 24'       5".53     1822.67
    Σ.             174° 52'       5".74     1829.24
    D.             172° 25'       5".95     1832.93
   [WDS            145°           7".30     2018   ]

which suggest a retrograde slow motion of -0°.16 per annum; and the distance appearing stationary, hints a period of upwards of 2000 years. [given the 2018 position angle of about 145° this has proven accurate] A glance from Rigel carried below ζ—the southern star of Orion's belt—and prolonged rather more than twice as far again, till it meets a line cast between Procyon and Nath, will have just passed over it. 38 Geminorum exhibits a sensible aberration from the common laws of precession, which has been thus valued:

    P.... RA +0".06 Dec. -0".08
    B....    +0".08      -0".06
   [Gaia DR2 +0".068745  -0".086832]

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

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