Starship Asterisk*

Oh well, it's not technically "my" star! heh.. thanks everyone for the help, I have enough info now to explain this to my 7 year old son, and preserve his opinion that I am the greatest, most smartest Dad in the world.

These are both good answers - certainly better than "maybe it's moving?" From that article you linked on Altair - they needed an array of telescopes to see enough detail to determine (or prove) that the star was oval. From this APOD, it looks like a single back yard telescope took this pic...

I was showing my son the APOD site a few days ago and he noticed something that was somewhat peculiar – peculiar enough that I thought I ought to ask about it. On http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080318.html near the bottom of the photo there is a star that is ovoid in shape. (It is more noticeable at ac...