Abstract: A summary of the activity of the CAMS-BeNeLux network during the month of April 2024 is presented. This month was good for 8566 multi-station meteors resulting in 2672 orbits.
1 Introduction
Meteor activity in April is still at a low level for northern latitudes. But with the Lyrids around April 22nd, we welcome the first well-known yearly meteor shower since the Quadrantids in early January.
2 April 2024 statistics
Weather in April remained very unsettled in this month. Although we could collect orbits in all nights, except during April 18–19, there were many nights with only partly clear conditions. Clear weather at all stations in the BeNeLux was, like nearly all months since October 2023 very rare.
Only in four nights we could collect more than 200 orbits: April 1–2, 21–22, 22–23 and 28–29. So at least then we benefited from better conditions. We could collect 629 orbits during the nights April 21–22 and April 22–23, mostly Lyrid meteors, as can be seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1 – Radiant plot of all orbits captured by CAMS-BeNeLux during April 21–22 and April 22–23, 2024.
CAMS-BeNeLux captured 8566 meteors multi-station. This resulted in 2672 orbits. 51,5% of the multi-station meteors, were captured by at least 3 cameras.
On average, 116 cameras were active every night in April. A greater number than last year because the number of stations and camera is still growing in our network. This month, at Dourbes four additional RMS cameras were installed by Hervé Lamy.
Figure 2 – Comparing April 2024 to previous months of April 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 CAMS-BeNeLux during the month of April in the period 2012–2024.
| Year | Nights | Orbits | Stations | Max. Cams | Min. Cams | Mean Cams |
| 2012 | 6 | 11 | 4 | 2 | – | 2.0 |
| 2013 | 19 | 140 | 9 | 10 | – | 6.5 |
| 2014 | 19 | 421 | 12 | 29 | – | 18.8 |
| 2015 | 27 | 1212 | 15 | 43 | – | 33.9 |
| 2016 | 26 | 971 | 17 | 50 | 15 | 37 |
| 2017 | 28 | 1235 | 20 | 60 | 32 | 48.2 |
| 2018 | 27 | 1929 | 21 | 83 | 59 | 73.3 |
| 2019 | 29 | 2538 | 20 | 84 | 44 | 67.7 |
| 2020 | 29 | 4128 | 25 | 94 | 76 | 89.4 |
| 2021 | 28 | 3061 | 27 | 91 | 59 | 82.1 |
| 2022 | 27 | 2543 | 24 | 81 | 62 | 77.2 |
| 2023 | 29 | 2888 | 36 | 111 | 88 | 101.4 |
| 2024 | 29 | 2672 | 45 | 131 | 101 | 116.0 |
| Total | 323 | 23749 |
At least 101 cameras were active each night. Comparing this number with the number of archived orbits, this confirms the impression that the weather was very changeable.
3 Conclusion
This is the fourth best result compared with all other April months, especially due to a larger number of cameras in our network.
Acknowledgment
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 April 2024:
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 3180, 3181, 3182 and 3183), 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 ), Jean Brunet (Fontenay le Marmion, France, RMS 3911), Seppe Canonaco (Genk, RMS 3818 and 3819), Pierre de Ponthiere (Lesve, Belgium, RMS 3816 and 3826), Bart Dessoy (Zoersel, Belgium, Watec 804, 805, 806), Tammo Jan Dijkema (Dwingeloo, Netherlands, RMS 3199), Jürgen Dörr (Wiesbaden, Germany, RMS 3810), Isabelle Ansseau, Jean-Paul Dumoulin, Dominique Guiot and Christian Wanlin (Grapfontaine, Belgium, Watec 814, 815, RMS 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, 3893 and 3894), Tioga Gulon (Nancy, France, Watec 3900 and 3901), Tioga Gulon (Chassignolles, France, RMS 3910), 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, 3841, 3895, 3896, 3897 and 3898), Hervé Lamy (Humain, Belgium, RMS 3821 and 3828), Hervé Lamy (Ukkel, Belgium, Watec 393 and 817), Hartmut Leiting (Solingen, Germany, RMS 3806), Arnoud Leroy (Gretz-Armainvielliers, France, RMS3909), 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, 3905, 3906 and 3908), Holger Pedersen (Otterup, Denmark, RMS 3501), Eduardo Fernandez del Peloso (Ludwigshafen, Germany, RMS 3805), Tim Polfliet (Gent, Belgium, Watec 396, RMS 3820, 3840 and 3846), 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), Jim Rowe (Eastbourne, England, RMS 3703), Philippe Schaack (Roodt-sur-Syre, Luxemburg, RMS 3952), Romke Schievink (Bruchhausen Vilsen, Germany, RMS 3808 and 3809),Hans Schremmer (Niederkruechten, Germany, Watec 803), Rob Smeenk (Assen, Netherlands, RMS 3196), Rob Smeenk (Kalenberg, Netherlands, RMS 3192, 3193, 3194 and 3195), Erwin van Ballegoij (Heesh, Netherlands Watec 3148 and 3149), Andy Washington (Clapton, England, RMS 3702).
