This unusual object is a irregular knot in the outer halo of the bright planetary N6543 (Cat's Eye) 1.7' W of center and appearing visually completely detached from the bright planetary. It's been previously catalogued as a galaxy (MCG +11-22-017,VV 121, PGC 61193) and is misclassified in amateur sky charting software. I observed this knot with my 17.5" last weekend and noted: "suspected at 220x without filter close to a mag 15 star located 1' W of the planetary. Using a UHC filter, clearly visible with averted vision as a very faint elongated patch, ~25"x15" oriented SW-NE. Requires averted for a good view but can almost hold continuously. Also visible at 140x with OIII filter and 280x with the UHC, but 220x provided the best view." I don't think this object is widely known about even with its very close proximity to a bright planetary.

The following comments on IC 4677 are from Harold Corwin's investigation of this object from the NGC/IC Project - go to the "Corrected NGC/IC" page for his NGC/IC corrections.

IC 4677 is a part of the corona of NGC 6543, the bright planetary near the north pole of the ecliptic. It is a complex of relatively bright knots in the planetary's corona, preceding the central star by an arcminute or so. While it's position has never been in doubt (Barnard's position and description of it in his private communication to Dreyer is exact, and there is a sketch of it in his Yerkes observations along with several micrometric measurements, all kindly sent to me by Leos Ondra), its character has been questioned, primarily by Vorontsov-Velyaminov. He included it in his first list of interacting galaxies (where it is No. 121), and in the MCG (it is MCG +11-22-017). This is a bit surprising as VV was an early authority on planetary nebulae; his book from the 1930's is now something of a classic on the topic. Still, the object does look something like a distorted late barred spiral on the PSS prints.