Ankaa (Alpha Phoenicis)
Ankaa (Alpha Phoenicis) is a star in the constellation Phoenix, magnitude 2.4.
The phoenix’s brightest star — an orange giant with a partner on a ten-year orbit.
A phoenix rises from its own ashes, and this star’s name is a late arrival too. Ankaa, from the Arabic al-ʽanqāʼ, “the phoenix”, was attached to it only sometime after 1800, borrowed from the constellation itself — a southern figure first drawn after Dutch voyages at the end of the 16th century.
Ankaa is an orange giant, a star that has used up the hydrogen in its core and swollen. It is not alone. Regular shifts in its spectrum reveal a companion circling it every 3,849 days, about 10.5 years. The two are too close to see separately, which makes Ankaa a spectroscopic binary.
Ankaa (Alpha Phoenicis) is 85 light-years away: the light we see from it set off in 1941, 11 years after Pluto was discovered.
Did you know?
- The bright one of the skiff. Medieval Arab astronomers pictured a boat here, not a bird. They called the star Nayyir al-Zawraq, “the bright one of the skiff”, Latinised as Cymbae.
- The Firebird. When Chinese astronomers adopted the European southern constellations, Phoenix became Huǒ Niǎo, the Firebird, and Ankaa its sixth star.
An orange 2nd-magnitude star, the brightest in Phoenix, in a sparse stretch of sky roughly midway between brilliant Achernar and Fomalhaut. Binoculars bring out its warm colour.
When and where to see it
It is best placed in the evening sky around November, when it crosses the meridian at about 10 pm local time (around midnight in September). It can be seen from everywhere south of 48°N and never sets south of 48°S.
At its highest it stands below the horizon from 50°N, 13° up from 35°N, 48° up from the equator, 83° up from 35°S.
Facts
- Type
- Star
- Constellation
- Phoenix
- Designations
- Alpha Phoenicis, α Phe, HR 99, HD 2261, HIP 2081
- Magnitude
- 2.4
- Position
- RA 0h 26.3m, Dec −42° 18′ (J2000)
- Spectral type
- K0.5IIIb
- Colour
- orange (B−V 1.09)
- Distance
- 85 light-years
- Discovered
- Naked-eye star known to medieval Arab astronomers
Open AstroPilot to see when Ankaa (Alpha Phoenicis) is highest tonight from your location, how easy it is with your telescope or binoculars, and an eyepiece view.