Named in honor of Helmut Scheffler (1928– ), staff member of the Heidelberg Königstuhl Observatory and professor of astronomy at Heidelberg University (1963–1991), on the occasion of his retirement. He has made important contributions to the fields of radiation transfer in the outer solar atmosphere, atmospheric seeing and the structure of the interstellar medium. In collaboration with H. Elsässer {see planet  (4385)}, Scheffler has written the well-known textbooks Physik der Sterne und der Sonne and Physics of the Galaxy and Interstellar Matter. (M 18643) _ _.