We present, CCD BVI photometry, of the Local Group dwarf galaxy Phoenix. Phoenix looks like a dwarf spheroidal with a sprinkle of young blue stars. The apparent V and I magnitudes of its red giants are used to estimate its distance at (m - M_v_)_0_ = 23.1+/-0.1. Phoenix is definitively a member of the Local Group. Its metal abundance, determined from the I vs (V - I) diagram, is found to be low at [Fe/H] = - 2.0. The radius of Phoenix is comparable to the dwarf spheroidal Leo II while its absolute magnitude is similar to that of the Carina dwarf. With M_v_ ~9.9, Phoenix is as faint as the dwarf irregular galaxies LGS3 or SagDIG. Its stellar mass is less than one million solar masses. The few bright blue stars, observed in its CMD, can be explained by a burst of star formation less than 150 million years ago. The presence of a few very red giants suggests that an intermediate age population is also present in Phoenix making its star-formation history more complex than any known dwarf spheroidal galaxy. For these reasons we would put Phoenix in a class of galaxies intermediate between irregulars and spheroidals.
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Rydt et al. (1991) studied this question.