Abstract: A summary of the activity of the CAMS BeNeLux network during the month of October 2021 is presented. October 2021 had several clear nights and long-lasting clear spells at many other nights. A total of 51696 meteors has been recorded of which 62% was multi-station, resulting in 9669 good quality orbits.

 

Introduction

The long October nights with high meteor activity are probably the most promising month for the CAMS BeNeLux network. Unfortunately, most years it remains with “promising”. Overcast and misty weather is most common during this autumn month in the BeNeLux. Would 2021 bring some good luck with October?

 

October 2021 statistics

Last year we got the worst-case weather scenario for the month October with not a single complete clear night for the entire network. Also 2019 had brought a poor month of October. October 2021 was a wet rainy month with a lot of cloud cover during the day, but with several clear nights and wide clear spells at night. For once we got lucky with this autumn month. 9669 orbits were collected (against 3305 in 2020) which is a new record for this month, doing slightly better than October 2018 when 9611 orbits were collected, including 1391 orbits in a single night with the Draconid outburst.

In total 51696 meteor detections were reported for all 94 operational cameras, 32268 of these could be used for a trajectory and orbit calculation, which is a multiple station score of 62%. A much better score than previous year when only 20135 meteors were detected of which 45% resulted in a trajectory solution. This month counted 23 nights with more than 100 orbits (12 in 2020). The best October night was 23–24 with as many as 926 orbits in a single night. Only two nights remained without any orbits, just like in 2020. The statistics of October 2021 are compared in Figure 1 and Table 1 with the same month in previous years since the start of CAMS BeNeLux in 2012. In 10 years, 257 October nights allowed to obtain orbits with a grand total of 38459 orbits collected during the month of October during all these years together.

Some CAMS stations were not operational due to technical problems or other reasons. October 2020 had a maximum of 90 cameras at 23 CAMS stations, 70.9 cameras on average available while October 2021 had 94 cameras at 26 CAMS stations and 82.2 cameras on average. The number of operational cameras increased thanks to a number of new RMS cameras that were installed earlier this year. The advantage of these RMS cameras is that these are 100% automated and 7 on 7 operational.

Again, no really perfect weather occurred for the Orionids apart from some partial clear sky 20–21–22 October, but CAMS BeNeLux could confirm the discovery by the Global Meteor Network of a new shortly active meteor shower (Vida et al., 2021).

Figure 1 – Comparing October 2021 to previous months of October 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 – October 2021 compared to previous months of October.

Year Nights Orbits Stations Max. Cams Min. Cams Mean Cams
2012 16 220 6 7 – 3.9
2013 20 866 10 26 – 16.8
2014 22 1262 14 33 – 19.7
2015 24 2684 15 47 – 34.8
2016 30 3335 19 54 19 41.3
2017 29 4163 22 87 45 74.4
2018 29 9611 21 82 52 73.0
2019 29 3344 20 76 47 67.5
2020 29 3305 23 90 52 70.9
2021 29 9669 26 94 70 82.2
Total 257 38459

 

 

Conclusion

The weather at night in October 2021 was in general favorable for CAMS BeNeLux. The large number of operational cameras, including several new RMS cameras combined with the favorable weather resulted in a new record number of orbits for the month of October.

 

Acknowledgment

Many thanks to all participants in the CAMS BeNeLux network for their dedicated efforts. This report is based on the data from the CAMS-website. The CAMS BeNeLux team was operated by the following volunteers during October 2021:

Hans Betlem (Woold, CAMS 3071, 3072 and 3073), Felix Bettonvil (Utrecht, Netherlands, CAMS 376 and 377), Jean-Marie Biets (Wilderen, Belgium, CAMS 379, 380, 381 and 382), Ludger Boergerding (Holdorf, Germany, RMS 3801), Martin Breukers (Hengelo, Netherlands, CAMS 320, 321, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326 and 327, RMS 319, 328 and 329), Giuseppe Canonaco (Genk, RMS 3818, RMS 3819), Pierre de Ponthiere (Lesve, Belgium, RMS 3816), Bart Dessoy (Zoersel, Belgium, CAMS 397, 398, 804, 805, 806 and 3888), Tammo Jan Dijkema (Eelderwolde, Netherlands, RMS 3198, Dwingeloo, Netherlands, RMS  3199), Jean-Paul Dumoulin, Dominique Guiot and Christian Walin (Grapfontaine, Belgium, CAMS 814 and 815, RMS 3814, RMS 3817), Uwe Glässner (Langenfeld, Germany, RMS 3800), Luc Gobin (Mechelen, Belgium, CAMS 3890, 3891, 3892 and 3893), Tioga Gulon (Nancy, France, CAMS 3900 and 3901), Robert Haas (Alphen aan de Rijn, Netherlands, CAMS 3160, 3161, 3162, 3163, 3164, 3165, 3166 and 3167), Robert Haas (Texel, Netherlands, CAMS 811, 812 and 813), Kees Habraken (Kattendijke, Netherlands, RMS 378), Klaas Jobse (Oostkapelle, Netherlands, CAMS 3030, 3031, 3032, 3033, 3034, 3035, 3036 and 3037), Carl Johannink (Gronau, Germany, CAMS 3001, 3002, 3003, 3004, 3005, 3006, 3007, 3008, 3009 and 3010), Reinhard Kühn (Flatzby, Germany, RMS 3802), 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 3051, 3052, 3053 and 3054), Steve Rau (Zillebeke, Belgium, CAMS 3850,  3852, RMS 3851, RMS 3853), Paul and Adriana Roggemans (Mechelen, Belgium, RMS 3830 and 3831, CAMS 3832, 3833, 3834, 3835, 3836 and 3837), Hans Schremmer (Niederkruechten, Germany, CAMS 803).

 

References

Vida D., Šegon D., Roggemans P. (2021). “October zeta Perseid meteor shower (OZP#01131)”. eMetN, 6, 536–539.