Phoenix is a southern constellation of the mythical firebird, led by the orange giant Ankaa and lying near Achernar at the mouth of the river Eridanus.
At a glance
| stars in the figure | 6 |
|---|---|
| not placed by measurement | Beta Phoenicis (no usable parallax; left out of the depth below) |
| nearest star of the figure | Ankaa, 84.7 light-years (26 pc) |
| farthest star of the figure | Wurren, 299 light-years (91.6 pc) |
| depth | the farthest is 3.5 × farther than the nearest |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Phoenix
Phoenix is one of the southern figures drawn up from the observations of the Dutch navigators Pieter Keyser and Frederick de Houtman and published by Petrus Plancius. It takes its name from the bird of legend that burns and is reborn from its own ashes, and it sits in a quiet region of the southern sky, flanked by Grus, Sculptor, Tucana and the bright star Achernar.
Its brightest star, Ankaa, is an orange giant, a star that has exhausted the hydrogen in its core and swollen. Wurren, another of its named stars, marks the figure’s western side. The constellation lies far from the plane of the Milky Way, so the view through it reaches out past the Galaxy into a sky of faint, distant galaxies.
Phoenix is best seen on spring evenings from the southern hemisphere, which is the northern autumn. From mid-northern latitudes only its upper part clears the southern horizon.
What you see in the piece
With CONSTELLATIONS (N) on and the HUMAN EYE view (E) left behind, the firebird disperses: Ankaa sits fairly near the Sun and Wurren lies behind it. Beta Phoenicis sits at a stand-in distance, because its own is not measured.
Measured or modelled
Beta Phoenicis has no usable parallax in the catalogue the piece draws on, so its distance is not measured: the piece pins it at a stand-in distance only so its line can still draw, and the card leaves it out of the nearest, farthest and depth.
Questions
What is the brightest star in Phoenix?
The brightest star in Phoenix is Ankaa, an orange giant.
How far away are the stars of Phoenix?
Of the stars with a measured distance, they range from Ankaa, 84.7 light-years (26 pc), to Wurren, 299 light-years (91.6 pc): the farthest is 3.5 × farther than the nearest. Beta Phoenicis has no usable parallax, so its distance is not measured.