Abstract: A summary of the activity of the CAMS BeNeLux network during the month of November 2021 is presented. 25832 meteors of which 14167 multiple station meteors were recorded. In total 4691 orbits were collected during this month, a third-best November month for CAMS BeNeLux.
Introduction
November is a typical autumn month with rather unstable weather over the BeNeLux. Completely clear nights are rare during this time of the year. However, during the long nights with 13 to 14 hours dark sky, it is also rare that clouds remain all night present. Very often clear gaps appear during which meteors can be registered. To be successful in a month like November is a matter of having enough cameras operational. With most stations running Auto CAMS seven days on seven, still a lot of double station meteors can be registered during periods with unexpected clear sky.
November 2021 statistics
CAMS BeNeLux detected 25832 meteors of which 14167 were multi-station (17241 in 2020 and 9339 in 2019), good for 4691 orbits (5441 in 2020, 3237 in 2019). This is less than previous year but still a much better result than in 2019. 2021 brought the third best month of November in ten years. AutoCams or RMS functioned at 24 camera stations, at 2 stations the cameras were only started when there was a chance for clear skies. Not all the camera stations could participate during the entire month.
This month counted 14 nights with more than 100 orbits (18 in 2020 and 10 in 2019). Two nights produced more than 500 orbits in a single night (2 in 2020 and 1 in 2019). The best November night in 2021 was 21–22 with as many as 1810 multi-station meteors, good for 578 orbits in this single night. Six nights remained without any orbits (2 in 2020). The statistics of November 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, 231 November nights allowed to obtain orbits with a grand total of 29927 orbits collected during November during all these years together.
While November 2020 had 88 cameras at best and 72.6 on average, November 2021 had 86 cameras at best and 81.6 on average. Since the last major expansion of CAMS BeNeLux in 2017, the number of operational cameras remained stable with a number of new cameras compensating the number of cameras that ceased participation in the CAMS network.
Figure 1 – Comparing November 2021 to previous months of November 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 – November 2021 compared to previous months of November.
| Year | Nights | Orbits | Stations | Max. Cams | Min. Cams | Mean Cams |
| 2012 | 14 | 165 | 6 | 8 | – | 4.4 |
| 2013 | 13 | 142 | 10 | 26 | – | 9.8 |
| 2014 | 24 | 1123 | 14 | 33 | – | 21.1 |
| 2015 | 23 | 1261 | 15 | 47 | 10 | 29.8 |
| 2016 | 24 | 2769 | 19 | 56 | 19 | 42.2 |
| 2017 | 26 | 4182 | 22 | 88 | 57 | 74.2 |
| 2018 | 28 | 6916 | 21 | 85 | 59 | 75.3 |
| 2019 | 27 | 3237 | 20 | 77 | 60 | 71.1 |
| 2020 | 28 | 5441 | 23 | 88 | 57 | 72.6 |
| 2021 | 24 | 4691 | 26 | 86 | 74 | 81.6 |
| Total | 231 | 29927 |
Conclusion
November 2021 brought fairly good autumn weather for the BeNeLux what resulted in a third-best November month during 10 years of CAMS BeNeLux.
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 with thanks to Martin Breukers for providing the information for the camera stations.
The CAMS BeNeLux team was operated by the following volunteers during the month of November 2021:
Hans Betlem (Woold, CAMS 3071, 3072 and 3073), 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 3100, 3101 and 3102), 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).
