Andrew Cooper
Feb 19, 2022    Waikoloa, HI (map)
20cm f/6 Newtonian, Cave Astrola @ 136x
Seeing: 8 Transparency: 6 Moon: 85%

A pretty yellow and blue pair, though the colors are less intense than Alberio or h3945, separated by 30", the brighter of the pair is a pale yellow, the companion is about two magnitudes fainter and pale blue seen to the northwest of the primary.

Gaia data shows the two to be a binary pair with matching parallax and proper motions.

Captain William Henry Smyth
Mar 17, 1836    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A double star, at the end of the Crab's northern claw; Piazzi's No. 158, Hora VIII., erroneously marked υ in the Palermo Catalogue. A 5½, pale orange; B 8, clear blue, the colours finely contrasted. A line from ε Geminorum, carried through Pollux, and extended something more than as far again to the east-north-east, will readily find it; and its identity will be instantly made out by its forming another line to the south-west with Procyon and Sirius. It is 62 ♅. IV., and the several observations made since its registry shew that no material change has occurred in a lapse of 54 years. The following are the other results:

    ♅.        Pos. 309° 54'  Dist. 29".90  Ep. 1782.11
    H. and S.      307° 42'        29".39      1822.26
    Σ.             307° 06'        30".46      1828.04
   [WDS            308°            30".60      2021   ]

Though the values are small, there is a decided spacial movement in ι Cancri, of which the most authentic statements are :

    P....   RA -0".12  Dec. -0".06
    B....      +0".05       -0".07
   [Gaia EDR3  -0".022070   -0".043699]

― 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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