Hello all.
This is my first post here, so I'll give a quick background on myself. Computer technician by trade, photographer by hobby. I have recently started getting into astrophotography, for about 3 months now. Tonight, I was very pleased, I got a shot of Andromeda by mistake as I was taking shots of constellations. I think I may have bumped my mount when I set it up. Anyways, I noticed to the upper right of my photo, above Andromeda, there was a small blue, "bow-tie" shaped thing. Doesn't look to be trailing. And I know I didn't bump it after I started the exposure. I am using a MiniEQ Mount (Orion), EQ1 Drive, Nikon D40 DSLR, kit lens for this one (18-55mm).
Any ideas on what it is?

Hi Ghost40, And wellcome it's a interesting object. did you croped the photo could you supply the entire photo to get a better idea of the position of this object.

Yes, it was cropped, I have attached the original image.

Hi Ghost40,
The star in the middle is Alpheratz
For other objects see the link:
http://server2.sky-map.org/starImage...p?image_id=948

Attached Images

img.JPG (13.4 KB, 17 views)

Also, a time, date, and your approximate location would be helpful as well. That would let us check to see if there was a satellite in the area at the time.

__________________
A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek will think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

9-19-2007
Approximately 1115 pm
Aberdeen, Maryland
39.5 N Lat

To add, its a 3 minute exposure, would have been darker but the motion lights went off during the shot.

Thanks for all the help, much appreciated.

Thats pretty interesting. How did you do that?

Simply match image with the cataloged stars using sky-map.org's astrophoto services, but first you need to know approximate position of the star field. I used MISAO PIXY to auto-resolve the position.