Andrew Cooper
Dec 4, 2005    Sentinel, AZ (map)
46cm f/4.5 Deep Violet

Large, coarse, a modest condensation of stars in a rich galactic star field

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

A compressed cluster, on the Argo's compass-card. The most gathering portion consists of stars from the 10th to the 15th magnitudes, with a glow of star-dust. It was discovered in March, 1793, and is 516 of H.'s Catalogue of 1830, where the shape is aptly likened to a flattened X. This object lying in a region devoid of large stars, is only to be fished up by running a line from the cluster in Orion's sword over Sirius, and extending it twice as far again into the south-east region.

The Mariner's Compass is an introduction of La Caille's; and as if the needle and card were not a sufficient anachronism, the classic old Argo was supplied by Bode with a log and line: so sixty-eight stars were constellated from the informes, and assigned to Pyxis Nautica and Lochium Funis.

― 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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