Achernar
Related Category: Astronomy: Stars
(´krnär´´), brightest star in the constellation Eridanus; Bayer designation &agr; Eridani; 1992 position R.A. 1h37.4m, Dec. −57°16&minut;.
Achernar (Alpha Eridani)
Achernar is extremely flattened by its rapid spin. Image: ESO
The ninth brightest star in the sky but one that is not well known to northern observers as it can only be seen at latitudes below 32° N.
Achernar
This article is about the star Achernar. For the character in the Myst series, see Achenar (Myst).
ACHERNAR (Alpha Eridani). There are 22 classical "first magnitude" stars in the sky.
Achernar is a very hot B3Vpe main sequence star blue in color, about 9 times the diameter of the sun and much more luminous. According to Burnham, the surface temperature is around 14,000 K.
Achernar's bulging waist
The science team used VLTI to observe Achernar between 11 September and 12 November 2002.
Achernar
A subgiant of spectral type B5, about 35 pc distant. ( Eridani)
Achilles ...
see Achernar. [H76]
AS Eridani
An eclipsing binary whose secondary is close to its Roche limit. [H76]
Eri ...
[3679] Achernar is a first magnitude star notable for its flat shape, caused by the star's rapid spinning. Its equatorial radius is 50 percent larger than the distance between the poles.
The star, Achernar (Alpha Eridani), is the brightest in the southern constellation Eridanus (The River). Achernar has a mass of 6 times that of the sun. The surface temperature is about 20,000 K and it is located at a distance of 145 light-years.
It lies in the southwest corner of (1:42:29.3-53:44:27.0, ICRS 2000.0) of Constellation Eridanus, the River -- northeast of Achernar (Alpha Eridani) and southwest of Chi, Phi, Kappa, and Theta1,2 Eridani (Acamar).
The names of the main named stars, Achernar (α Eri), and Acamar, (θ Eri) are sufficiently similar to raise some questions, and in classical times Acamar, on the southern edge of Fornax was indeed the end of the celestial river, ...
The brightest star is called Achernar, which is Arabic for "river's end". You can tell from the name that this star is at the southern end of the constellation, and is rarely seen in the Northern Hemisphere. The other tip is held by Cursa.
The B-class star Achernar, for example, has an equatorial rotation velocity of about 225 km/s or greater, giving it an equatorial diameter that is more than 50% larger than the distance between the poles.
The constellation's brightest star, first-magnitude Alpha Eridani, is called Achernar, from the Arabic meaning ‘the river's end'; it does indeed mark the southern end of Eridanus.
The brightest star in Eridanus, alpha Eri, is Achernar (meaning "end of the river"); it is the 9th brightest star in the sky (magnitude 0.46). The second-brightest, beta Eri, is Cursa (meaning "chair/footstool of Orion" ).
Eridanus' stars are fairly faint, except for alpha (Achernar, "the end of the river"). This bright star is only visible in latitudes south of 33 degrees, which eliminates most of North America and all of Europe.
It can be found east of the bright star Achernar in Eridanus, the river. The constellation contains no bright stars and is most easily visible to those living in the Southern Hemisphere.
Named stars: Alpha Eri (Achernar), Beta Eri (Cursa), Gamma Eri (Zaurak), Theta Eri (Acamar)
Info:
Fornax (Furnace) ...
Phaeton was trown into its waters when he drove Sun's chariot too close to Earth. Its brightest star, Achernar ("River's End") is located too far South (d close to -60°) to be seen fom Canada or US.
Notable are alpha Eri, called Achernar (arab.: end of the river), with 0.5 mag the 6th brightest star in the sky, and epsilon Eri, a star similar to our sun, which is just 10.7 light years away.
The high proper motion of Alpha Centauri is gradually increasing this angle. Before about March 2000, Achernar and Fomalhaut held this distinction of being the most isolated from other first-magnitude stars.[citation needed] ...
Already this instrument is producing some exciting science including the discovery that the fast spinning hot star Achernar has an equatorial radius more than 50% larger than its polar axis making it the flattest star known and detailed observations ...
 See also: Star, Constellation, Eridanus, Light, Sun
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