Does anyone know what this bright object located just outside of the Ursa Major constellation?

It looks almost like a Nebula?!! It's got a bluish, radiant tint around it. Best seen at about 100x magnification just below and to the lower left of the North Star (sorry, I'm an amateur, I don't know these proper names) It looks almost like something looking back at you, it's weird. Like a critter with glowing yellow eyes, lol!! What is the name of this? I saw this last night, and I really thought I just had too much wine.Does anyone know what this bright object located just outside of the Ursa Major constellation?Assuming you have correctly identified Polaris (the north star) -- be sure now, use the two rightmost (westward) stars of the outer part of the "big dipper" asterism of Ursa Major as pointers towards Polaris -- you also need to at least give an approximate time that you observed. Looking at where you saw it on a star chart (if you don't have an atlas, there is plenty of freeware star chart generators out there) would help confirm where you saw what you saw. What aperature is your telescope (inches or millimeters)?



If what you saw was close to any of the major stars of the dipper then it is unlikely that you are referring to the north star. When you say "to the lower left" not only does that not give a clue as to how far angularly you might be referring. Could you say how many fingers apart held-at arms ength it might be? Also, because of Earth's rotation, what part of the sky you would be referring to would change over the course of the night. Hence the need for a time (and date) of your observation. And were you in a dark sky (where you can clearly see the Milky Way) or subject to light pollution to one degree or another?



I'm familiar with what's up there. But at the moment there are too many unknowns to your question to hazard a guess. Add more info to the question details or better luck next time.Does anyone know what this bright object located just outside of the Ursa Major constellation?That was one of the possible objects I had thought of. "Bluish radiant tint" I might have thought more appropriate to describe NGC 6543 in Draco (it is small but vivid -- do check it out), as I don't think I've seen any color in the Owl Nebula (M97).

Report Abuse

Does anyone know what this bright object located just outside of the Ursa Major constellation?The brightest blue star is Vega (5th brightest star in the sky) The link has a photograph.