Captain William Henry Smyth
Mar 22, 1833    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A close double star, in a fine vicinity on the loins of the Lesser Dog, closely sf of Procyon. A 7, white; B 8, ash-coloured, with a minute blue star preceding it about 2', and another of the llth magnitude in the sp quadrant. This very pretty star resembles η Coronæ, but is smaller; and to see it well, we are directed by ♅. to observe it when Procyon is near its meridian altitude. The components of this object are both close and oblique, which may account for the results of the several astrometers being too discordant to admit of a decision upon the apparent variations; though a direct and increasing angular motion must be inferred, now amounting to about 1° per annum, according to some observers. The registered details of comparison are:

    H.        Pos. 117° 21'  Dist. (caret)  Ep. 1781.91
    H. and S.      127° 08'        (caret)      1823.13
    Σ.             132° 06'        l".46        1829.43
    D.             134° 13'        1".33        1831.01
   [WDS            176°            0".90        2021   ]

An almost imperceptible movement in space is attributed to the leader, apparently in the same direction with Procyon, from which it stands at an angle of about 105, and a distance of 10'; of this movement, the most rigidly investigated values are :

    P.... RA -0".42  Dec. 0".00
    B....    -0".02      -0".04
    T....    +0".ll      -0".06
   [USNO     -0".0048    -0".0244]

From the above-cited extract from Σ.'s observations, I do not clearly understand my friend Amici's remark in the twelfth volume of Baron De Zach's Correspondance Astronomique: "si potrebbe con ragione sospettare che il gran cannocchiale achromatico del Signor Struve non abbia tanta luce distinta, quanto un mio telescopio di undici pollici di diametro; imperocchè egli annunzia 1'osservazione sna della doppia stella 3 Canis Minoris, ossia Herschel I. 23, e non fa parola di un altra stelletta vicina, che I'accompagna."

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

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