A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - The star Lalande 19662 in Sextans in 1875

 Nature, May 13^th 1875

The star Lalande 19662 in Sextans-

Mr J E Gore, of Umballa, Punjab, directs attention to the probable variability of this star. It was observed by Lalande on April 10^th 1798 in “Histoire Celeste” p 330, where its magnitude is entered 4.5, as in the reduced catalogue published by the British Association.

 It appears in Heis’s Atlas as a magnitude 6.7; but after searching through the modern catalogues where it was likely to be included, we have only discovered a single meridian observation by Lamont in his zone 314, on April 5^th 1845, when he called it magnitude 7.8.

It does not occur in Argelander’s “Uranometria”, nor was it observed by D’Agelet, Bessel or Santini.

 Another of Lalande’s stars No. 23726 in Corvus, is in all probability variable. He estimated it at magnitude 7.5 on May 10^th 1795, and Bessel in May 1824 called it magnitude 8.0. Heis, however, saw it as a 5^th magnitude star. What is the actual degree of brightness? 

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