Definition
A peacock tail is a fanned ground effect made of mines, comets or bombettes fired simultaneously from tubes angled in a half circle, so the trails spread like the feathers of a displaying peacock. It is produced either with a purpose-built cake (tubes glued in a 120 or 180 degree fan) or with a rack of hand-set single shots of 30 to 75 mm. The opening is instant, one to three seconds, and very readable even from afar; in multicolour, each feather takes its own hue. The peacock tail underlines a musical beat, opens a tableau or closes a sequence of shells; lined up in several copies it forms waves that run along the firing site.
In practice, for the display company
A peacock tail fired as single shots needs one cue per tube or a grouped ignition via quick match; as a cake, one cue is enough. PyroDesk records the spread angle and tube count, and PyroSimulator draws the ground fan to check it stays within the perimeter and lines up with the other fans in the wave.