A summary of the activity of the CAMS BeNeLux network during the month of August 2019 is presented. The CAMS BeNeLux network experienced an exceptional month with favorable weather circumstances. An all-time record number of orbits for a single month was collected in August 2019. As many as 55335 meteors were recorded, 33231 of which proved multiple station, or 60%. A total of 9921 orbits were collected during this month.
1 Introduction
The Perseid month of August remains the favorite observing month for many amateurs. The expectations were tempered for the Perseids 2019 because of the Full Moon on August 15. Luckily, video cameras with a small field of view have very little problem with moonlight and register meteors, even with the moon right in the field of view. Another advantage of Full Moon around the Perseid maximum is that no observing campaigns are planned abroad so that most camera operators stay at home with CAMS as main alternative to monitor the Perseids.
2 August 2019 statistics
CAMS BeNeLux collected 55335 meteors (27917 in August 2018) of which 33231 or 60% were multi-station (15286 and 55% in 2018), good for 9921 orbits (5403 in 2018). This is an absolute record month, improving the previous August record number of 2017 when 8738 orbits were recorded. August 2019 did even better than October 2018 when 9611 orbits were recorded in a single month.
August 2019 counted only 6 nights dominated by clouds, all August nights allowed to register at least some meteors and only 16–17 and 17–18 August remained without orbits. All other nights allowed all CAMS BeNeLux stations to record meteors resulting in hundreds of orbits per night. Four nights had more than 500 orbits and August 13-14 had as many as 1175 orbits.
The statistics of August 2019 are compared in Figure 1 and Table 1 with the same month in previous years since the start of CAMS BeNeLux in 2012. In 8 years, 218 August nights allowed to obtain orbits with a grand total of 36330 orbits collected during August during all these years together. The first night of August 2019 was the 2000th night since the start of CAMS BeNeLux that orbits could be collected.
Most camera operators use AutoCams, only some CAMS stations in the Netherlands and Germany do not yet use AutoCAMS. Remote control allows to operate the cameras and to report data during the summer. While the weather was exceptional favorable, more cameras were active than during any month of August in the past. August 2018 had to do with a maximum of 72 cameras, 62.4 on average. This year as many as 87 cameras were operational at maximum, 79 on average. Especially the RMS cameras scored huge numbers of orbits. Their larger field of view with still a very good resolution provides overlap with many of the small FoV Watecs at most CAMS stations.
Figure 1 – Comparing August 2019 to previous months of August in the CAMS BeNeLux history. The blue bars represent the number of orbits, the red bars the maximum number of cameras running in a single night and the yellow bar the average number of cameras running per night.
Table 1 – August 2019 compared to previous months of August.
| Year | Nights | Orbits | Stations | Max. Cams | Min. Camas | Mean Cams |
| 2012 | 21 | 283 | 5 | 6 | 3.2 | |
| 2013 | 27 | 1960 | 13 | 25 | 15.3 | |
| 2014 | 28 | 2102 | 14 | 32 | 20.8 | |
| 2015 | 25 | 2821 | 15 | 45 | 30.4 | |
| 2016 | 30 | 5102 | 20 | 54 | 15 | 46.2 |
| 2017 | 28 | 8738 | 21 | 82 | 45 | 69.9 |
| 2018 | 30 | 5403 | 19 | 72 | 56 | 62.4 |
| 2019 | 29 | 9921 | 23 | 87 | 65 | 79.0 |
| Total | 218 | 36330 |
An extra RMS camera (3831) was installed in Mechelen, pointed low towards Luxembourg to give extra coverage on the south-eastern part of the network (see Figure 2 and 3). It is worthwhile to look at the number of orbits collected with these RMS cameras, compared to the Watecs in the CAMS BeNeLux network. The 20 best scoring cameras are listed in Table 2.
Table 2 – Comparing RMS cameras among the twenty cameras of the CAMS BeNeLux network with the best score in terms of orbits during August 2019.
| Camera | Total orbits | Total nights |
| 003814 (RMS Grapfontaine, BE) | 1672 | 31 |
| 003830 (RMS Mechelen, BE) | 971 | 31 |
| 003815 (RMS Genk, BE) | 828 | 30 |
| 003900 (Watec, Nancy, FR) | 715 | 31 |
| 000384 (Watec, Mechelen, BE) | 679 | 31 |
| 000394 (Watec, Dourbes, BE) | 671 | 31 |
| 000399 (Watec, Mechelen, BE) | 643 | 31 |
| 000329 (RMS, Hengelo, NL) | 621 | 28 |
| 000391 (Watec, Mechelen, BE) | 607 | 31 |
| 000388 (Watec, Mechelen, BE) | 579 | 31 |
| 000380 (Watec, Wilderen, BE) | 565 | 31 |
| 000353 (Watec, Ermelo, NL) | 559 | 26 |
| 000395 (Watec, Dourbes, BE) | 553 | 31 |
| 000390 (Watec, Mechelen, BE) | 552 | 31 |
| 000383 (Watec, Mechelen, BE) | 550 | 31 |
| 000806 (Watec, Zoersel, BE) | 541 | 31 |
| 000814 (Watec, Grapfontaine, BE) | 531 | 31 |
| 003035 (Watec, Oostkapelle, NL) | 520 | 26 |
| 000809 (Watec, Mechelen, BE) | 493 | 31 |
| 000393 (Watec, Ukkel, BE) | 485 | 31 |
Figure 2 – RMS camera fields intersected at 80 km compared with a number of Belgian and French Watecs’FoV.
Figure 3 – RMS camera fields intersected at 100 km compared with a number of Belgian and French Watecs’FoV.
3 Conclusion
August 2019 counted exceptional many favorable nights for the CAMS BeNeLux network. In spite of the Full Moon on August 15, a record number of orbits were collected making August 2019 the best month ever since the start of the network.
Acknowledgment
Many thanks to all participants in the CAMS BeNeLux network for their dedicated efforts. The data on which this report is based has been taken from the CAMS website (http://cams.seti.org/FDL/index-BeNeLux.html). The CAMS BeNeLux team is operated by the following volunteers:
Hans Betlem (Leiden, Netherlands, CAMS 371, 372 and 373), Jean-Marie Biets (Wilderen, Belgium, CAMS 379, 380, 381 and 382), Martin Breukers (Hengelo, Netherlands, CAMS 320, 321, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326 and 327, RMS 328 and 329), Guiseppe Canonaco (Genk, RMS 3815), Bart Dessoy (Zoersel, Belgium, CAMS 397, 398, 804, 805, 806 and 888), Jean-Paul Dumoulin and Christian Walin (Grapfontaine, Belgium, CAMS 814 and 815, RMS 003814), Luc Gobin (Mechelen, Belgium, CAMS 390, 391, 807 and 808), Tioga Gulon (Nancy, France, CAMS 3900 and 3901), Robert Haas (Alphen aan de Rijn, Netherlands, CAMS 3360, 3361, 3362, 3363, 3364, 3365, 3366 and 3367), Robert Haas (Texel, Netherlands, CAMS 810, 811, 812 and 813), Robert Haas / Edwin van Dijk (Burlage, Germany, CAMS 801, 802, 821 and 822), Klaas Jobse (Oostkapelle, Netherlands, CAMS 3030, 3031, 3032, 3033, 3034, 3037, 3038 and 3039) , Carl Johannink (Gronau, Germany, CAMS 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317 and 318), Hervé Lamy (Dourbes, Belgium, CAMS 394 and 395), Hervé Lamy (Humain Belgium, CAMS 816), Hervé Lamy (Ukkel, Belgium, CAMS 393), Koen Miskotte (Ermelo, Netherlands, CAMS 351, 352, 353 and 354), Tim Polfliet (Gent, Belgium, CAMS 396), Steve Rau (Zillebeke, Belgium, CAMS 3850 and 3852), Paul and Adriana Roggemans (Mechelen, Belgium, CAMS 383, 384, 388, 389, 399 and 809, RMS 003830 and 003831), Hans Schremmer (Niederkruechten, Germany, CAMS 803), Erwin van Ballegoij (Heesch, Netherlands,CAMS 347 and 348) and Marco van der Weide (Hengelo, Netherlands, CAMS 3110).
