Peter Francis Williams is an amateur astronomer from New South Wales, Australia. He specializes in early detection of declines in R Coronae Borealis-type stars and the long-term monitoring of several southern Mira variables and eclipsing binary stars. He was the first person who detected the naked-eye Nova known as V382 Velorum in 1999[1] and seven years later he discovered the Nova Ophiuchi 2006.[2] Both discoveries brought him the Nova/Supernova Award of the American Association of Variable Star Observers.[3] In 2007 he received the Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.[4] He is a life member of the Sutherland Astronomical Society.