Alpha Phoenicis

Alpha Phoenicis is the star's Bayer designation. It also bore the traditional name Ankaa sometime after 1800, from the Arabic العنقاء al-ʽanqāʼ "the phoenix" for the name of the constellation.[11] The International Astronomical Union has formally adopted the Ankaa as the proper name for Alpha Phoenicis.[12]

Medieval Arab astronomers formed the constellation of the dhow (where Phoenix is), so another popular name for the star is Nair al Zaurak[13] from نائر الزورقnayyir az-zawraq "the bright (star) of the skiff". The Latin translation is Cymbae, from lūcida cumbae.[13]

In Chinese caused by adaptation of the European southern hemisphere constellations into the Chinese system, 火鳥 (Huǒ Niǎo), meaning Firebird, refers to an asterism consisting of α Phoenicis, ι Phoenicis, σ Phoenicis, ε Phoenicis, κ Phoenicis, μ Phoenicis, λ¹ Phoenicis, β Phoenicis and γ Phoenicis . Consequently, α Phoenicis itself is known as 火鳥六 (Huǒ Niǎo liù, English: the Sixth Star of Firebird.)[14]

Alpha Phoenicis is a spectroscopic binary star system with components that orbit each other every 3,848.8 days (10.5 years).[6] The combined stellar classification of the system is K0.5 IIIb,[3] which matches the spectrum of a normal luminosity giant star. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 2.4,[2] so it is somewhat outshone by its first magnitude neighbors Achernar (α Eridani) and Fomalhaut (α Piscis Australis). Based upon parallax measurements, this system is at a distance of about 85 light-years (26 parsecs) from the Earth.[15] The interferometry-measured angular diameter of the primary component, after correcting for limb darkening, is 5.25±0.06 mas,[16] which, at its estimated distance, equates to a physical radius of about 15 times the radius of the Sun.[8]