Phoenix, constellation in the southern sky at about 1 hour right ascension and 50° south in declination. Its brightest star is Alpha Phoenicis, with a magnitude of 2.4. This constellation was invented by Pieter Dircksz Keyser, a navigator who joined the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies in 1595 and who added 12 new constellations in the southern skies. It represents the mythical phoenix, a unique bird that lived for hundreds of years and would arise from the ashes of its predecessor.