Starship Asterisk*

I believe the technical term for this type of chance alignment is an Asterism a chance alignment of generally unrelated stars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterism_(astronomy)

[quote="JimWWhite"]I've been wondering about something when I view pics like the M57 Ring Nebula at higher resolution. Just below and to the left of the nebula at the 7 o'clock position there are four stars arranged in an arch. I've seen grouping of stars like this in other pics where the stars appear to be a string of pearls. Are these in any way related to one another or are they just a fluke of alignment that makes them appear to be related? Could these be sibling stars that emerged from the same stellar nursery long ago? Just curious...[/quote]


I think I found them.Is the first one white and second one orange;do they get smaller(or more distant) as they arch downward?

It's probably IC 1296
(thanks)

[quote="jesusfreak16"]I also see a galaxy (barred?) about 3" at 2:00 from the nebula[/quote]

Are you referring to IC 1296 or did you spot another one? there is a more distant one at about 1:00 and in the upper right hand corner that is barely visible when you enlarge the picture. I"m sure there are more if you study the background under magnification.

Orin

I also see a galaxy (barred?) about 3" at 2:00 from the nebula

[url]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080918.html[/url]

Without knowing exactly to which four stars you are referring, I would hazard the guess that it is a chance occurance. Multiple stars from the same stellar nursery would probably not form a regular pattern. I also believe either there would be more than just four stars, or there would be evidence of the nebula from which the stars formed. Just my opinion.

See: [url]http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search?star+cluster[/url]

I've been wondering about something when I view pics like the M57 Ring Nebula at higher resolution. Just below and to the left of the nebula at the 7 o'clock position there are four stars arranged in an arch. I've seen grouping of stars like this in other pics where the stars appear to be a string of pearls. Are these in any way related to one another or are they just a fluke of alignment that makes them appear to be related? Could these be sibling stars that emerged from the same stellar nursery long ago? Just curious...