The Piscis Austrinids meteor shower
Key facts
- Peak
- around 28 July
- Active
- mid-July to about 10 August
- Rate at peak (ZHR)
- about 5
- Speed
- 35 km/s
- Radiant
- Piscis Austrinus (close to Fomalhaut)
- Parent body
- Unknown
Dates shift slightly from year to year. This year's peak is in the events calendar.
The Piscis Austrinids are a minor late-July shower from the southern sky, active at the same time as the Southern Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids. Together these three make late July a rewarding time for southern observers.
The radiant. The meteors seem to come from Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish, a small constellation below Aquarius. Its only bright star is Fomalhaut, a white star that stands alone in a fairly empty part of the sky and is sometimes called the Solitary One. The radiant lies close to Fomalhaut.
The parent. No parent body has been identified.
What to expect. About five meteors an hour at best, many of them faint. The shower is rich in faint meteors, which makes it a traditional target for telescopic observers, who count meteors in the small field of view of binoculars or a telescope. Brighter members are seen occasionally.
Over the years, measurements of this shower have been uncertain because it overlaps with the Southern Delta Aquariids, whose radiant is not far away in Aquarius. Modern video networks detect it only weakly, and it has been dropped from the main international list of visual showers, although observers still report it. Telling the two apart needs care: Piscis Austrinids are a little slower and come from further south.
Viewing from the UK. Fomalhaut is low in the south from the UK, never climbing more than about ten degrees above the horizon from southern England, so this is a poor shower for British observers. A clear southern horizon helps.
Viewing worldwide. From southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand and South America, Fomalhaut is high in the sky in the hours after midnight in late July, and the shower is well seen. Tropical observers also do well. July is midwinter in the southern hemisphere, so nights are long and dark.
Viewing tips
- Watch from the southern hemisphere after midnight, when Fomalhaut is high.
- Find Fomalhaut, a lone bright star low in the southern summer sky from Europe.
- Plot meteors on a chart to tell them from Southern Delta Aquariids.
- Try a pair of binoculars on a tripod to catch faint members.
- Combine with the Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids on the same night.