Captain William Henry Smyth
Feb 17, 1837    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A close double star, nf the Crab's northern claw. A 6, lucid white; B 9, sky blue. This beautiful object is No. 1298 of the great Dorpat Catalogue, and, from the following measures, and my own, appears to have been pretty constant in the lapse of twelve years:

    S.  Pos. 135° 25'  Dist. 4".85  Ep. 1825.04
    Σ.       137° 47'        4".60      1831.16
   [WDS      137°            4".4       2017   ]

There being some confusion in identifying Bayer's sigmas, it is as well to state that this is Piazzi's No. 226, Hora VIII.; and a ray from Sirius through Procyon, carried nearly double that distance into the north-north-east, will find it.

[Smyth's coordinates, Σ 1298, and the double star notes all indicate this star is 66 Cnc/HD 77104 rather than σ4 Cnc as found in the title of entry CCCXLV]

― 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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