Captain William Henry Smyth
May 8, 1832    No. 6 The Crescent, Bedford, England (map)
150mm f/17.6 refractor by Tully 1827

A close double star, in the animal's tail. A 4, silvery white; B 7½, lilac. This beautiful and delicate object is 9 ♅. I., and has thus been severally measured:

    ♅.        Pos. 244°09'  Dist. 2".00  Ep. 1780.90
    H. and S.      242°40'        2".89      1822.46
    Σ.             240°14'        2".70      1829.17
   [WDS            224°           2".6       2019   ]

These results are not so coincident as a star bearing illumination so well as this does ought to have yielded; and I cannot but deem that the proper motion assigned by Piazzi is somewhat countenanced by the small change which has occurred in the angle of position, although it is not entered in the Lists of Brioschi or Argelander. The amount given in the Palermo Catalogue, and by Mr. Baily, may be thus stated:

    P....  RA +0".28  Dec. -0".20
    B....     -0".02       -0".04
   [Gaia EDR3 -0".033072   -0".126187]

I was induced to be the more particular with this star, firstly, because H. and S. relate that a doubt had arisen whether 9 ♅. I., were the same with 38 or 39 of the British Catalogue, both of which are neatly double: and secondly, because Baron de Zach, in his discussions of Σ.'s early observations (Correspondance Astronomique, vol. viii., p. 413), inferred that the angle had considerably augmented since the year 1780. This star I distinctly saw double—as a choice test object—in the telescope of Piazzi's circle, in March, 1814, though he has not entered it among his "binæ." It is to be found where a line from Regulus, carried over ε Leonis, and 23° further to the north-north-west, meets another from ζ and γ Ursæ Majoris.

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

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