Named after the mythical phoenix, Phoenix is a minor constellation located in the southern sky. The constellation was first depicted on a celestial atlas by Johann Bayer in his 1603 Uranometria.

The French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille charted the brighter stars and gave their Bayer designations in 1756.

The brightest star in the constellation is Alpha Phoenicis, which is an orange giant of apparent magnitude 2.4. Th 2nd brightest star is Beta Phoenicis, which is actually a binary system composed of two yellow giants with a combined apparent magnitude of 3.3. 

It remains below the horizon to anyone living north of the 40th parallel in the Northern Hemisphere, and remains low in the sky for anyone living north of the equator. The constellation is most visible from locations such as Australia and South Africa during late Southern Hemisphere spring.

	Applicable Information
Visibility In Pacific Northwest	August to January — Partially and Barely visible
Best Times To View	November, but only the top of the constellation
Right Ascension	23h 26.5m to  02h 25.0m
Declination	−39.31° to −57.84°
Area	469 square degrees
Main Stars	4
Brightest Object	α Phe
Meteor showers	Phoenicids
Messier objects	0
Neighboring Constellations	Sculptor, Grus, Tucana, Hydrus, Eridanus, Fornax

History

Phoenix was the largest of the 12 constellations established by Petrus Plancius, who used the observations of Dutch explorers Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman.

Plancius was a the first to publish the first to publish a celestial globe with th constellation in 1598 in Amsterdam. The first depiction of this constellation in a celestial atlas was in Johann Bayer’s Uranometria of 1603.

Unlike the other constellations introduced by Plancius and La Caille, Phoenix has actual precedent in ancient astronomy. Arab astronomers saw this formation as representing young ostriches, Al Ri’āl, or as a griffin or eagle. There are instances in which the same group of stars was sometimes imagined by the Arabs as a boat, Al Zaurak, on the nearby river Eridanus.

A curved line of stars comprising Alpha, Kappa, Mu, Beta, Nu and Gamma Phoenicis was seen as a boat by the ancient Arabs.

The Chinese incorporated Phoenix’s brightest star, Ankaa, and stars from the adjacent constellation Sculptor to depict Bakui, a net for catching birds. 

Stars

French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille charted and designated 27 stars with the Bayer designations Alpha through to Omega in 1756.

One name of the brightest star Alpha Phoenicis, Ankaa, is derived from the Arabic meaning “the phoenix”, and was coined sometime after 1800 in relation to the constellation.

10 stars have been found to have planets in the constellation, and 4 planetary systems have been discovered during the SuperWASP project. 

The constellation does not lie on the galactic plane of the Milky Way, and there are no prominent star clusters.

NGC 625 is a dwarf irregular galaxy of apparent magnitude 11.0, which and lies some 12.7 million light years distant.

NGC 37 is a lenticular galaxy of apparent magnitude 14.66, which is thought to be 12.9 billion years old.

A group if 4 galaxies, has been named Robert’s Quartet is composed of the irregular galaxy NGC 87, and three spiral galaxies NGC 88, NGC 89 and NGC 92. These are in the process of colliding and merging.

Lying within the bounds of the constellation is the Phoenix cluster, which is roughly 7.3 million light years wide and 5.7 billion light years away, making it one of the most massive galaxy clusters. First discovered in 2010, the galaxy is producing an estimated 740 new stars a year.

Phoenix is the radiant of two annual meteor showers. First observed in 1956, the Phoenicids or the December Phoenicids is thought related to the breakup of the short-period comet 289P/Blanpain. The meteor shower peaks around 4–5 December, although the shower is not seen every year. There is the July Phoenicids, which is a very minor meteor shower peaks around July 14 with around one meteor an hour. The July Phoenicids can be seen anytime from July 3 to 18.

Make sure to check out other articles on the site, including a brief introduction to constellations, other constellation articles, and more!