α Eri. Magnitude 0.46, blue-white. A first-magnitude star, among the brightest few dozen visible.
Astronomers call it α Eri — the Bayer designation, which reads as a Greek letter ranking its brightness within its constellation. Achernar is the name people actually use.
Achernar shines at magnitude 0.46, making it a first-magnitude star, among the brightest few dozen visible. Its B−V colour index of -0.16 makes it blue-white to the eye, corresponding to a surface temperature of over 10,000 K.
It sits at right ascension 1.63 hours and declination -57.2°. It lies south of the celestial equator and sits low for northern observers, better the further south you go.
SkyRef shows exactly where Achernar is from your location right now — altitude, compass direction, and rise and set times.