Geological Chronicle
Birmingham is the surviving remnant of a lunar impact crater measuring 89.92 kilometers in diameter near the northern limb of the Moon. Because of this northern position, observers on Earth view the formation at a low angle. The feature forms a rhomboidal plain situated directly north of Mare Frigoris, lying east of the walled plain W. Bond, which it somewhat resembles, with Epigenes to the northeast and Fontenelle to the west.
Because the formation is heavily degraded, it is difficult to identify except under low illumination conditions. All that survives of the original crater is an irregular perimeter of low, indented ridges surrounding a basalt-resurfaced interior. The inner floor is marked by several tiny craterlets and is unusually rough for a walled plain, though low illumination angles reveal fine details of the boulder-strewn field.
The crater was named for Irish astronomer John Birmingham (1816–1884). William R. Birt and John Lee incorporated the name into lunar nomenclature during the 19th century, and the International Astronomical Union officially adopted the designation in 1935.