Backlund

Lat: 16.0°S, Long: 103.0°E, Diam: 75 km, Depth: km, Rükl: (farside)

LOII 196 M Backlund is in the center, with 224-km Pasteur to its north, and 151-km Hilbert to its east.
right: LROC

Images

Named for Johan Oskar Backlund (April 28, 1846 – August 29, 1916), a Swedish-Russian astronomer. He specialized in celestial mechanics, and notably worked on calculating the orbit of Comet Encke, taking into account the perturbations of various planets. He used observations of Comet Encke to try estimate the mass of Mercury. Russian sources sometimes referred to the comet as Comet Encke-Backlund. Backlund was the 1914 Bruce Medalist of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and extensive links to information about him can be found there.
Backlund was among the long list of farside names approved by the IAU in 1970 and published in Menzel, 1971, where the name is given as "Oscar A.".
In the planning for Apollo 8, the first manned circumlunar mission (1968), this crater (which did not then have an official name) was referred to informally as "Anders", a name subsequently approved for use in connection with a completely different farside crater (see: Phil Stooke's LPOD).