Today's Amateur Astronomy Photo of the Day:

NGC 2477 (also known as C 71) is a brilliant open cluster in the constellation Poppa. It is a very compact object, in appearance most similar to a brilliant globular cluster, unless it is an object inside the Milky Way.

NGC 2477 is a rich and luminous cluster, consisting of a well-nourished star population; its distance is estimated to be around 4000 light years away and is therefore located probably in correspondence to a segment of Orion's Arm heading outward and perhaps intersecting the Perseus Arm.