This particular object I tracked down by comparing the visual with the infrared image of the sky. It was a little tricky because no very bright star appears at that location. But after making comparisons, the star in the original image is HD 155161, also known as V* AH Sco, indicating that it is a variable.
In fact, Simbad lists it as a red supergiant at coordinates [17 11 17.02114, -32 19 30.7132], and visual magnitude of about 7.5 Red supergiants are often unstable and are semi-regular varible stars.
That explains why it is much brighter in the VISTA infrared image than in the optical. Red supergiants have cool outer layers that give off much of their radiation as infrared, not as visible light.
Looking at the star on Aladin Lite, even in the infrared, there is not a hint of nebulosity around the star. The conclusion is that this is an optical effect, lens flare or similar.