Phoenix
What is Phoenix?
Constellations· Autumn evenings on the southern horizon (N) · between Achernar and Fomalhaut. The legendary bird reborn from fire — a 1598 southern constellation between Fomalhaut and Achernar. From Seoul only its alpha star Ankaa briefly clears the autumn southern horizon. It is also the radiant of the early-December Phoenicid meteor shower. Move the Sky view location south to see it whole.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
Where Phoenix is in your sky right now: https://nowsky.org/solar/sky?sel=con:Phoenix — location and time set automatically, no login.
Stars of the figure
| Star | Magnitude |
|---|---|
| Ankaa | 2.4 |
The 1 brightest of the 3 stars used in the figure (2 lines). Lower magnitude means brighter.
Deep-sky objects near this constellation
Constellation basics
| Season | autumn evenings on the southern horizon (N) · spring (S) |
|---|---|
| Brightest star | Ankaa (α, 2.4) |
| How to find | south-east of Fomalhaut, north-west of Achernar |
| Area rank | 88 |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Frequently asked
- When can I see Phoenix?
- autumn evenings on the southern horizon (N) · spring (S).
- How do I find Phoenix?
- south-east of Fomalhaut, north-west of Achernar.
- What is the brightest star in Phoenix?
- Ankaa, magnitude 2.4.
- Where is Phoenix in the sky right now?
- Open the sky view for your location and time and it shows the position in the sky right now.
A star of almost pure hydrogen and helium — HE 0107-5240 in Phoenix
In 2002 a star with only one two-hundred-thousandth of the Sun's iron was found 36,000 light-years away in the direction of Phoenix. HE 0107-5240 had the lowest metal content of any star known at the time and is read as a second-generation star born directly from the ashes of the universe's first stars. Slightly lighter than the Sun, it has survived for 13 billion years.
Such a star is a fossil preserving almost the chemical makeup of the time just after the Big Bang, and from its spectrum one reads backward what elements the first stars made and in what amounts. It holds relatively much carbon, a clue that the first stars sowed carbon early. Phoenix, true to its name, holds a star reborn from ashes, and that star is one of the few links between the universe's first generation and ourselves.
The constellation in depth
Phoenix is the largest of the twelve southern constellations Plancius introduced in 1598. It depicts the bird of Egyptian and Greek legend that burns itself every five hundred years and rises again from the ashes; Arab astronomers saw a great boat or a brood of young ostriches here instead. The alpha star's name, Ankaa, comes from the Arabic word for phoenix.
Ankaa is an orange giant of magnitude 2.4, Beta a double for small telescopes, and Zeta Phoenicis an Algol-type eclipsing binary dipping every 1.7 days. The constellation contains Robert's Quartet, a group of interacting galaxies, and the cluster El Gordo, one of the most massive galaxy clusters ever observed. The Phoenicid meteors, first seen from South Africa in 1956, returned in 2014.
On October–November evenings, find Fomalhaut in the south and look toward the horizon to its lower left for Ankaa. From Seoul it reaches only about 10 degrees, so you need an open southern sky, and most of the body stays below the horizon. Set the Sky view location to Sydney to see the whole bird beside Achernar.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.