[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Originally Posted by Merlin66

Have you checked with Simbad???

Thanks for the good suggestion. Never tried Simbad (and would probably need the harbour-master's help) but no need - as mentioned the ESO article shows a 5 minute total exposure on just the core, using the 8 metre VLT in 2001. The conspicuous blue star is shown very clearly. My guess is it is just a particularly impressive "blue straggler" that isn't normally seen because people (quite reasonably) burn out and/or desaturate the core trying to get a good overall shot.

Cheers,
Mike