The Beethoven quadrangle is located in the equatorial region of Mercury, in the center of the imaged area. Most pictures of the quadrangle were obtained at high sun angles as the Mariner 10 spacecraft receded from the planet. Images in the northeastern part of the quadrangle are very poor to unusable. Another difficulty in mapping is the poor match in topographic bases between Beethoven and adjacent quadrangles. Mismatches are especially common along the borders with the Kuiper and Discovery quadrangles to the east and southeast.