Geological Chronicle
Located in the northeastern region of the Moon, Messala is a large impact crater classified as a walled plain spanning 122.4 kilometers across. Its position close to the lunar limb causes the formation to appear noticeably foreshortened when observed from Earth. The prominent crater Geminus lies to the southwest, while Bernoulli is situated due south.
Erosion from minor impacts has degraded the outer rim over time, though much of the wall retains its original shape and a degree of terracing. Several smaller craters break the perimeter, including Messala B along the south, Messala J to the north, and Messala K on the northwest. Messala J features a narrow gouge in its eastern rim extending one crater diameter eastward, where it joins a slightly larger crater resting across the southern rim of Schumacher.
Messala's interior floor is relatively level but displays localized surface irregularities, including dark fractures across the northwestern floor and a ghost crater along the western inner wall. In 1935, the International Astronomical Union officially named the feature for Masha'allah ibn Atharī, the eighth-century Jewish astronomer and astrologer from Basra.