Gassendi Crater. Low Sun illumination enhances the contrast between the rough and cracked surface on the floor of Gassendi and the smoother surface of the Sea of Moisture beyond the low crater rim at the top of the frame. The high northern rim of Gassendi is at the lower right corner of this oblique view southward across the 110-km-diameter crater. Gassendi was one of three candidate sites for the Apollo 17 lunar landing mission; sampling and study of the central peak complex would have been the scientific objective of the proposed mission. The shadow at the lower left corner of the frame conceals the floor of the Crater Gassendi A.

This photo was used in Figure 181 of Apollo Over the Moon: A View from Orbit (NASA SP-362, 1978), which has the following caption:

This view into the shallow crater Gassendi shows another strongly fractured crater floor. Gassendi is about 110 km wide. Dark mare lavas in the distance embay the rim and a little of the interior of Gassendi. They may have entered the crater through the narrow gap partly in shadow below the arrow. Most craters that have fractured floors are near areas of mare flooding. This suggests that the fracturing is a consequence of volcanic activity. An area next to the central peaks of Gassendi was the runnerup choice for a landing site for Apollo 17.-K.A.H.