On December 14 at 21:10 EST I was playing with my Seestar S50, seeing if I could reliably control it from inside (since it was 17F/-8c). I took a 10 minute exposure of M76 (with LP filter). A day or so later, when I downloaded the images, I saw something strange below and to the right of M76 that I hadn't noticed during the capture. Attached is a detail including M76 and this object.
It looks rather odd to be a comet (no coma, a large kink in the tail). Is/was there one in this area? Could it have been a meteor (that perhaps broke up and swerved)? This was the last image I took that night, and it's been cloudy since. I don't see any hair or dust on the lens. It doesn't look much like a satellite or an airplane. As the Moon was almost Full, I was using my pop-in dew shield (not the heater). Anyone have an idea of what this is? Thanks!