analyses complete

I concluded my research into the multiple star system λ (lambda) Orionis a.k.a. Meissa tonight. The mystery is solved. Actually, it's not so mysterious... What I observed first on 16 Feb 09 and on subsequent viewings is correct. There is nothing unusual about what I saw. The crude sketch on 23 Feb 09 shows a faint star below Meissa (approx. PA 180°); the detailed sketch on 1 Mar 09 echoes this (intriguingly, my random letter assignments completely correspond to Haas's notes). And my recent sighting on 6 Feb 10 showed everything in the same place.

The photos Paul shot for me and the images I was able to pull from digital sky survey websites showed the stars I had seen.

The only thing mysterious or peculiar about all of this, is that all the software planetarium applications I have access to (and some I don't), do not show this part of the sky accurately!

Stellarium 0.9.x shows a faint star between Meissa A/B and D. I did not observe this star. It looks though like there truly is a faint star there. Stellarium does not show C at PA 182° with a ½° sep. Stellarium 0.10.3 shows fewer stars...

TheSky6 does no show anything between A/B and D. Nor does it show C.

Cartes du Ciel appears to show even fewer stars.

I was most surprised that Starry Night Pro Plus 6.2, like TheSky6, did not display the nearby stars I saw (from my light polluted backyard one year ago).

It all became clear when I did my own scaled drawing in Visio. Yes, Visio.

So, on one hand it's a little disappointing that I didn't "discover" anything new. For a time I had wondered if I had found a fast-moving double star or maybe a nova. But, it also satisfying to know that I in fact observed all four stars as noted by Haas.

Thanks to Paul, Eric, and Geoff for their assistance in this project.