Andrew Cooper
Feb 22, 2020    Kaʻohe, Mauna Kea, HI (map)
28cm f/10 SCT, NexStar 11" GyPSy @ 127x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

Brilliant pale yellow, no companion noted

Captain William Henry Smyth
Nov 25, 1832    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A star with a distant companion on the loins of Canis Major; where a line from Betelgeuze to the south-south-east, through Sirius, intercepts it at 12° below that star. A 3½, light yellow; B 7½, very pale; other small stars in the field, and np is the one mentioned by Piazzi, "Alia 9æ magnitud. prsecedit 45".5 temporis, 1'48" ad boream." My observations are, of course, not sufficiently nice for an authority, but still they countenance the slight proper motion attributed to this star, both in R.A. and declination. It is considered variable; having been registered 2nd magnitude by Hevelius, La Caille, and Brisbane; 2½ by Halley; 3 by Ptolemy, Tycho, and Flamsteed; and 3½ by Piazzi and Johnson. From comparisons made at the above epoch, the comparative brightness was similar to that recorded in the Palermo Catalogue.

δ is called Wezen, al-wezn, weight, from appearing to rise with difficulty above the horizon, as if chained to the ground. The same sluggishness was applied to α and β Centauri, which 1000 years ago, under the 30th parallel of latitude, only obtained a meridian altitude of 4°. The most general application, however, of the name, will be found under ε Canis Majoris. The group of which may be considered as the centre, and which consists of ε, η, δ, ο, and ι, were called El- Zâra, the virgins, by the early Arabians.

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

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