Diagram caption: The constellation Phoenix with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Phoenix is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Sculptor, Grus, Tucana, Hydrus, Eridanus and Fornax.

Phoenix is a southern constellation and thus the whole constellation is visible at some point in the year throughout the northern hemisphere. The whole constellation is also visible to equatorial regions of the southern hemisphere with parts of the constellation visible to most temperate northern regions. Phoenix is circumpolar in antarctic and some temperate regions of the southern hemisphere. The constellation is best viewed in the northern hemisphere late autumn and southern hemisphere late spring.

The y-axis of this diagram is in degrees of declination with north as up and the x-axis is in hours of right ascension with east to the left. The sizes of the stars marked here relate to the star's apparent magnitude, a measure of its apparent brightness. The larger dots represent brighter stars. The Greek letters mark the brightest stars in the constellation. These are ranked by brightness with the brightest star being labeled alpha, the second brightest beta, etc., although this ordering is not always followed exactly. The dotted boundary lines mark the IAU's boundaries of the constellations and the solid green lines mark one of the common forms used to represent the figures of the constellations. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.

Diagram credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope. Credit Link

Related glossary terms: Apparent Magnitude , Celestial Coordinates , Constellation , Declination , Right Ascension (RA)
Categories: Naked Eye Astronomy

Diagram license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons