M40 Gets It's Own Page???

M40 needs a bit of an explanation. Charles Messier was told of two stars with  nebulosity at these coordinates. When he looked at this location all he found were the 2 bright stars you see in the center of  the photo. He went ahead and entered it into his catalog even though it didn't really fit his criteria. It is without a doubt the most disappointing of all the Messier objects but we had to include it in our gallery. The galaxy NGC4290 just below M40 would not have been visible to Mr. Messier.