Abstract: A summary of the activity of the CAMS-BeNeLux network during the month of October 2023 is presented. This month we collected a total of 24636 multi-station meteors resulting in 7404 orbits.
Introduction
Sporadic meteor activity is near its peak this month. Some major showers, Orionids and Taurids, are also visible and meanwhile observations are possible for more than 12 hours from our latitudes. These facts make October one of the finest months for meteor observing.
Interesting to see what this month would bring this year.
October 2023 statistics
To be clear: October was a very unsettled month with a lot of rain in the first half of the month, especially in the Netherlands. (Figure 1).
Figure 1 – Amount of rain in Belgium and the Netherlands during October 2023 (Source: total rain in October KNMI online).
Fortunately, Belgium and northern France had far better circumstances. But in general, we see that the different totals in Table 1 are lower than in September. On average 98 cameras were active this month, this is 6% lower than in September. At least 78 cameras (night October 13–14) and at most 112 cameras were active this month. In September we had at least 89 cameras active. These totals prove that we didn’t have an optimal month for observing.
But there is another reason why these totals are lower than last month. Several stations faced technical problems during some nights. Most of them were solved soon, but some are still waiting for a solution.
We could welcome Rob Smeenk (Assen, the Netherlands) as a new participant in our network. He now delivers data from his RMS NL000P as CAMS 3196 to our network. There are now 38 locations where cameras are monitoring the skies over the BeNeLux.
In Grapfontaine the number of cameras was expanded with two new RMS cameras (RMS BE000P and BE000Q as CAMS 3843 and 3844). Furthermore, RMS BE0001 (3814) was moved to another position, and now delivers data with CAMS id 3845.
CAMS-BeNeLux captured 24636 multi-station meteors, resulting in 7404 orbits. For reasons mentioned earlier, this is ~25% less than in October 2022. (see Figure 2). No orbits were obtained during the night October 23–24. The night October 22–23 had the highest score: 1072 orbits. This is the second time that a night in October produced more than 1000 orbits since the Draconid outburst October 8–9 in 2018. Furthermore, we have collected more than 600 orbits during the nights October 10–11, 14–15, 15–16 and 24–25. So, in these 5 nights more than 50% of all the orbits for this month were obtained.
In Figure 3 we see a plot of all the radiants obtained during the night October 22–23 with as many as 1072 orbits and thus radiant points. The Orionid activity is very prominent, and also both Taurid branches are clearly visible.
Table 1 and Figure 2 show an overview of all data for this month compared with the month of October in previous years.
Figure 2 – Comparing October 2023 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 capturing in a single night, the green bars the average number of cameras capturing per night and the yellow bars the minimum number of cameras.
Table 1 – Number of orbits and active cameras in the BeNeLux during the month of October in the period 2012–2023.
| 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 |
| 2022 | 30 | 9749 | 31 | 94 | 68 | 86.4 |
| 2023 | 30 | 7404 | 38 | 112 | 78 | 97.9 |
| Total | 317 | 55612 |
Figure 3 – Plot of all radiants for October 22–23, 2023 (data CAMS-BeNeLux).
Conclusion
Results for October 2023 were the fourth best for this month in CAMS–BeNeLux.
Acknowledgement
Many thanks to all participants in the CAMS-BeNeLux network for their dedicated efforts. The CAMS-BeNeLux team was operated by the following volunteers during the month of October 2023: Stéphane Barré (Colombey-Les-Belles, France, RMS 3907), Hans Betlem (Woold, Netherlands, Watec 3071, 3072, 3073, 3074, 3075, 3076, 3077 and 3078), Felix Bettonvil (Utrecht, Netherlands, Watec 376), Jean-Marie Biets (Wilderen, Belgium, Watec 379, 380 and 381), Ludger Boergerding (Holdorf, Germany, RMS 3801), Günther Boerjan (Assenede, Belgium, RMS 3823), Martin Breukers (Hengelo, Netherlands, Watec 320, 321, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326 and 327, RMS 319, 328 and 329), Seppe Canonaco (Genk, RMS 3818 and 3819), Pierre de Ponthiere (Lesve, Belgium, RMS 3816 and 3826), Bart Dessoy (Zoersel, Belgium, Watec 804, 805, 806 and RMS 3827), Tammo Jan Dijkema (Dwingeloo, Netherlands, RMS 3199), Isabelle Ansseau, Jean-Paul Dumoulin, Dominique Guiot and Christian Wanlin (Grapfontaine, Belgium, Watec 814, 815, RMS 3814, 3817, 3843, 3844 and 3845), Uwe Glässner (Langenfeld, Germany, RMS 3800), Roel Gloudemans (Alphen aan de Rijn, Netherlands, RMS 3197), Luc Gobin (Mechelen, Belgium, Watec 3890, 3891, 3892 and 3893), Tioga Gulon (Nancy, France, Watec 3900 and 3901), Robert Haas (Alphen aan de Rijn, Netherlands, Watec 3160, 3161, 3162, 3163, 3164, 3165, 3166 and 3167), Robert Haas (Texel, Netherlands, Watec 811 and 812), Kees Habraken (Kattendijke, Netherlands, RMS 3780, 3781, 3782 and 3783), Klaas Jobse (Oostkapelle, Netherlands, Watec 3030, 3031, 3032, 3033, 3034, 3035, 3036 and 3037), Carl Johannink (Gronau, Germany, Watec 3100, 3101, 3102), Reinhard Kühn (Flatzby, Germany, RMS 3802), Hervé Lamy (Dourbes, Belgium, Watec 394 and 395, RMS 3825 and 3841), Hervé Lamy (Humain, Belgium, RMS 3821 and 3828), Hervé Lamy (Ukkel, Belgium, Watec 393 and 817), Hartmut Leiting (Solingen, Germany, RMS 3806), Horst Meyerdierks (Osterholz-Scharmbeck, Germany, RMS 3807), Koen Miskotte (Ermelo, Netherlands, Watec 3051, 3052, 3053 and 3054), Pierre-Yves Péchart (Hagnicourt, France, RMS 3902, 3903, 3904 and 3905), Eduardo Fernandez del Peloso (Ludwigshafen, Germany, RMS 3805), Tim Polfliet (Gent, Belgium, Watec 396, RMS 3820 and 3840), Steve Rau (Oostende, Belgium, RMS 3822), Steve Rau (Zillebeke, Belgium, Watec 3850 and 3852, RMS 3851 and 3853), Paul and Adriana Roggemans (Mechelen, Belgium, RMS 3830 and 3831, Watec 3832, 3833, 3834, 3835, 3836 and 3837), Philippe Schaack (Roodt-sur-Syre, Luxemburg, RMS 3952), Hans Schremmer (Niederkruechten, Germany, Watec 803), Rob Smeenk (Assen, Netherlands, RMS 3196), Erwin van Ballegoij (Heesh, Netherlands Watec 3148 and 3149), Stef Vancampenhout (Vorselaar, Belgium, RMS 3842), Andy Washington (Clapton, England, RMS 3702).
