Andrew Cooper
Dec 26, 2020    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 76x
Seeing: 6 Transparency: 7 Moon: 0%

Pale orange, the brightest of an oblong 1' trio with two 7th magnitude stars to the east, at the core of the Beehive M44, 8' west of ε Cnc

Captain William Henry Smyth
Dec 2, 1830    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A coarse triple star, on the Crab's body; with an alignment similar to that of 118 P. VIII., before described. A 7, pale yellow; B 7½, dusky; C 6½, lucid white. This, though a wide object, forms a very fair scalene triangle, and is No. 571 of Sir James South's Catalogue of 1826, where it is thus registered:

    Pos. AB 157° 01'  Dist. 45".037|  Ep. 1825.13
         AC 240° 58'        92".257|
   [WDS  AG 158°            45".70        2018   ]
   [     AD 242°            92".10        2018   ]

A proper motion is detected in A, and it is not improbable that the three are physically connected, so as to partake in the same movement in space. These are the latest deductions:

    P....  RA -0".16  Dec. -0".01
    B....     -0".08       +0".20
   [Hipparcos -0".034617   -0".013601]

― 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