Captain William Henry Smyth
Aug 26, 1839    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A coarse triple star, in the nape of the Lynx's neck, nearly in mid-distance of an imaginary line thrown from Polaris to Pollux. A 7, white; B and C, both 8, and plum coloured. This is 83 ♅. III., and Nos. 47, 48, and 49 P. VII. It is also No. 78 of H. and S.; but it is curious that these astronomers have each assigned what I deem, on repeatedly comparing the light of the components, a wrong quadrant to B. By shifting it from the sp to the np, their measures will compare with those of Σ. and myself thus:

    ♅.     Pos. 316° 54'  Dist. 14".19  Ep. 1782.86
    H. and S.   313° 05'        14".54      1821.22
    S.          313° 50'        14".72      1829.51
   [WDS         317°            13".80      2019   ]

This star was made micrometrically triple by H. and S., by including C, which lies near the north vertical, exactly in the same RA with B. The whole appear to be unchanged, though A is suspected of proper motions to the following amount:

    P....  RA -0".16  Dec. -0".08
    B....     -0".03       -0".05
   [Gaia EDR3 -0".002938   -0".031141]

― 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.

A complete list of credits and sources can be found on the about page