L41 - Bessel ray

Material ejected during the formation of an impact crater can sometimes leave a pattern of rays radiating out from the crater like the spokes of a wheel. The crater of origin of the Bessel ray is still uncertain. It is not from the crater Bessel because it does not radiate from the center of the crater. It may be from nearby Menelaus, but this crater seems to be from an oblique impact that ejected material in almost the opposite direction. Another possibility is Tycho, which is 2000 km away, but none of Tycho's other rays come close to radiating this far.

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Images © Doug Anderson

This image was taken on 26-May-2004 through a 203mm Celestron C-8 Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector with f/6.3 focal reducer afocally coupled to an Olympus C-700 digital camera through a 40mm eyepiece.