Astronomy Picture of the Day

Good evening, Rallypoint, and welcome to this edition of Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for February 25, 2025.

Messier 41 (aka M41; The Little Beehive Cluster) has a storied history of discovery. Some believe the philosopher Aristotle documented M41 as early as 325 BC. It lies about 2,300 light years from Earth. Charles Messier added the cluster of roughly 100 stars to his catalogue on January 16, 1765, describing it as a “cluster of stars below Sirius, near Rho Canis Majoris,” adding that “this cluster appears nebulous in an ordinary telescope of one foot; it is nothing more than a cluster of small stars.”