Bessel (crater)
Apollo 17 Mapping Camera image
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| Coordinates | 21°48′N 17°54′E / 21.8°N 17.9°ECoordinates: 21°48′N 17°54′E / 21.8°N 17.9°E |
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| Diameter | 16 km |
| Depth | 1.7 km |
| Colongitude | 342° at sunrise |
| Eponym | Friedrich W. Bessel |
Bessel is a small lunar crater that is located in the southern half of the Mare Serenitatis. Despite its small size, this is the largest crater to lie entirely within the mare. It lies to the north-northeast of the crater Menelaus and west-northwest of the smaller Deselligny. It is also east-southeast of Hornsby crater which is located northwest of its satellite crater Bessel F and about 150 km away is Banting crater located north-northwest and is also west-northwest of its satellite crater Bessel H.
This crater is circular and bowl-shaped with a rim that has a higher albedo than the floor or the surrounding mare. The outer rim is not significantly worn, and there are no features of note on the interior, apart from some slumping of material from the inner walls to the floor. Bessel is not of sufficient size to have developed the structures of larger craters.
A large ray, most likely from Tycho, crosses the mare from north to south, passing Bessel's western side. It is the Bessel Ray which is an unofficial name. The earlier name of that feature was appeared in Johannes Hevelius's 1647 map which called it "Paludes Inferiores" which is the "Lower Marsh" in Latin, that portion was actually not lower and upper as there was no elevation map exist then.
Southeast of Bessel is a wrinkle ridge, the Dorsa Lister which runs southeast then northeast in a semicircular shape.
The crater was named after the German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel. The crater was officially named by the IAU in 1935.
By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Bessel.
The following craters have been renamed by the IAU:
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