● Achernar Achernar is a star in Eridanus. ##### ########### ############### ################# ################# ################# ############### ########### ##### Type Blue-white main-sequence star Constellation Eridanus Magnitude 0.5 Spectral type B3Vpe Distance 144 light years You need naked eye Known as Bayer α Eri Yale HR 472 More information about Achernar Achernar sits at the southern tip of Eridanus, and its name is the Arabic آخر النهر, "the end of the river", which is exactly where it is. It spins so fast, at something like 250 kilometres a second at its equator, that it is not round: it bulges outward, making it the most distorted star known. At 144 light years it is bright because it is hot and large rather than because it is near, and it never rises above about 33 degrees north. Bayer lettered the stars of each constellation in his Uranometria of 1603, in order of brightness. He was working from Tycho's magnitudes by eye, and the order he recorded is often wrong. First published in 1930 by Yale astronomer Frank Schlesinger, and maintained since, the Yale Bright Star Catalogue lists every star down to magnitude 6.5. It contains 9,110 stars. where it is tonight: skymap.sh/Achernar