A Celestial Riddle... ?

Look at this picture, reproduced from one of the ESO Schmidt plates obtained for the red half of the joint ESO/SERC Atlas of the Southern Sky. The bright, round object is the planetary nebula PK274+3.1. The object to the right of it is… just some galactic stars. Is somebody trying to tell us something?

© The ESO Messenger (Editor: Richard West)