Star profile
Tau Phoenicis
What is Tau Phoenicis
Tau Phoenicis is a yellow star nearly 600 light-years away, in the mythical bird that rises from its own ashes. Its brightness barely reaches the threshold of the human eye: under city skies it goes unnoticed, and only from very dark sites does it reveal itself. It is one of the very first entries in the Hipparcos catalogue, HIP 88, near the start of the list that mapped the position of more than a hundred thousand stars in our galaxy.
Where it is and when to see it
Tau Phoenicis lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is August, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it never rises above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 1° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 75° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 41° N.
It ranks no. 32 in brightness among the 39 stars of Phoenix in our catalogue. To find it, start from Ankaa, the brightest: it lies about 8° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 590 years ago.
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A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.
Astronomical data for Tau Phoenicis
- Constellation
- Phoenix
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.71
- Distance
- 593.1 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 0.269° · Dec -48.810°
- Catalogue
- HIP 88 · HD 224834
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Other stars in Phoenix
Phoenix has 39 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- AnkaaAlpha Phoenicis2.40
- Beta Phoenicis3.32
- Gamma Phoenicis3.41
- HIP 93135.57
- HIP 23835.67
- HIP 5225.70
- Xi Phoenicis5.72
- HIP 35835.80