Puppid-Velid Meteor Shower

The Puppid-Velids are not one shower but a cluster of weak ones. Their radiants are packed so closely in the southern constellations Puppis and Vela that you cannot tell them apart by eye, so observers treat them as one source, active in the first half of December.

This is a southern-sky shower. From the Southern Hemisphere and the tropics the radiant is up all night, while from mid-northern latitudes it barely clears the horizon. Rates are modest, but the shower is known for the occasional bright fireball.

Where the meteors come from

No parent comet or asteroid is known for any of the Puppid-Velid radiants. The International Meteor Organization (IMO) calls the name a traditional label for a system of poorly studied showers. The position it lists is an average that lies close to one of them, the e-Velids, while another, the kappa Velids, may take over around December 20. In the IAU Meteor Data Center the main stream is still on the working list, for showers that need confirmation, under the name gamma Puppids.

When to watch

IMO gives an activity period of December 1 to about December 15, with a reference date around December 7. With several radiants overlapping there is no sharp peak, so the whole first half of December is worth watching; the table above shows the moonlight around the reference date. Slightly higher rates seem to come in early to mid-December, and weaker radiants nearby may keep a trickle going into January.

The radiant climbs highest in the hours before dawn, which is when you will see the most.

How to find the radiant

The IMO position lies in Vela, about a degree and a half from the border with Puppis. Start at Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, then find Canopus, the second brightest, well to its south. The radiant is roughly 20 degrees east of Canopus and a couple of degrees from Regor (Gamma Velorum), the brightest star of Vela. Treat it as a broad patch about 10 degrees across rather than a point.

From mid-southern latitudes the radiant is in the south-east in the evening and high in the south toward dawn. From about 40°N it never rises more than about 5 degrees above the southern horizon, so you will see almost no Puppid-Velids from most of the United States or Europe.

What to expect

The ZHR of about 10 is the best you could hope for under a perfect sky. From a dark site in the Southern Hemisphere, with the radiant high before dawn, a realistic count is about 4 to 8 an hour; from the suburbs, 1 to 3. Puppid-Velids are medium-speed meteors at 44 km/s. The population index of 2.9 means most are fairly faint, but bright fireballs have been reported now and then, especially around the suggested maximum. If a meteor's path leads back to the Puppis-Vela area, count it as a Puppid-Velid.

Viewing tips

• Watch from the Southern Hemisphere or the tropics if you can. From mid-northern latitudes the shower is practically out of reach.
• Southern December nights are short, so plan a session from about 1 a.m. until dawn twilight begins.
• Look about halfway up toward the south-east or south, with the radiant at the edge of your view.
• If you see a fireball, note the time and direction. Reports help researchers sort out this poorly studied complex.

History and notable displays

Radar surveys at Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1953, 1956 and 1960 showed strong meteor activity every December from radiants in both Vela and Puppis. Reporting the results in 1964, Ellyett and Roth described a Velid group and a more spread-out Puppid group, both near declination −45 degrees. Since then, several separate radiants have been proposed in the area, and IMO still gives the activity working status, pending further study. The Puppid-Velids are mainly followed by experienced southern observers and video networks.