The 'Pi Puppids' are a
meteor shower associated with the
comet Comet Grigg-Skjellerup 26P.
The
meteor stream was viewable around
April 23 but only in years around the parent comet's
perihelion date, the last being in
2003. However, as
the planet Jupiter has now perturbed the comet's perihelion to beyond
Earth's orbit it is uncertain how strong the shower will be, if at all, at the next opportunity in
2008.
The Pi Puppids get their name because their
radiant appears to lie in the
constellation Puppis, at around
Right ascension 112 degrees and
Declination -45 degrees. This made them only visible to southern observers.
They were discovered in
1972 and have been observed about every 5 years - at each perihelion passage of the comet - but often at very low rates per hour.
External links
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Observing and History of the Pi Puppids