Birmingham is the surviving remnant of a lunar

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

 crater

Impact crater

In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...

. It is named after the astronomer John Birmingham

John Birmingham (astronomer)

John Birmingham was an Irish astronomer, amateur geologist, polymath and poet. He spent six or seven years travelling widely in Europe where he became proficient in several languages. In 1866 he discovered the recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis...

 (not, as is often stated, the British city

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 nor its Alabama namesake

Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...

).
The crater is located near the northern limb of the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

, and so is viewed from the Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

 at a low angle.

All that survives of the original formation is an irregular perimeter of low, indented ridges surrounding the lava

Lava

Lava refers both to molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption and the resulting rock after solidification and cooling. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at...

-resurfaced interior. The inner floor is marked by several tiny craterlets, and the surface is unusually rough for a walled plain. The low angle of illumination allows fine details of this boulder-strewn field to be seen more clearly.

Location

The Birmingham formation lies just to the north of the Mare Frigoris

Mare Frigoris

Mare Frigoris is a lunar mare located just north of Mare Imbrium, and stretches east to north of Mare Serenitatis. The mare is in the outer rings of the Procellarum basin...

, and to the east of the walled plain W. Bond

W. Bond (crater)

W. Bond is an irregularly shaped lunar walled plain that is located in the northern part of the Moon, to the north of the Mare Frigoris. It lies to the east of the crater Birmingham, and south-southwest of Barrow. Epigenes is located just to the northwest of the outer rim. Along the southwest edge,...

. To the northeast is the smaller crater Epigenes

Epigenes (crater)

Epigenes is a lunar crater that is located in the north part of the Moon, and is sufficiently close to the northern limb to appear significantly foreshortened from the Earth. It lies just to the northwest of the remains of the walled plain W. Bond. Due north of Epigenes is Goldschmidt, and the...

, with Fontenelle

Fontenelle (crater)

Fontenelle is a lunar crater that is located along the northern edge of Mare Frigoris, in the northern part of the Moon. To the northeast is the remnant of the crater Birmingham...

to the northwest.

Satellite craters

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater mid-point that is closest to Birmingham.

Birmingham	Latitude	Longitude	Diameter
B	63.6° N	11.3° W	8 km
G	64.5° N	10.2° W	5 km
H	64.4° N	10.6° W	7 km
K	65.0° N	13.1° W	6 km