Abstract: A summary of the activity of the CAMS-BeNeLux network during the month of July 2024 is presented. This month was good for 27357 multi-station meteors resulting in 7671 orbits.

 

Introduction

In July sporadic meteor activity is picking up. Some major meteoroid streams are also active towards the end of the month, e.g. Capricornids and Southern delta Aquariids. Astronomical twilight comes to an end near July 20th. All-in all we can observe greater meteor activity this month during more hours per night.

 

July 2024 statistics

However, the weather let us down a bit this month as well. It was not until the end of the month that the weather improved, so the results increased noticeably in the last week of July. In 19 nights, the number of collected orbits exceeded 100. CAMS-BeNeLux collected data from 27357 simultaneous meteors from all locations during the month, resulting in a total of 7671 orbits. This is the best result for a July month since the observations began in 2012 (Figure 1). About 40% of all orbits were obtained in the last week, with the real highlights being the nights 28–29 and 29–30 July when 941 and 800 orbits were collected respectively. Never before have so many orbits been captured during one night in July.

Figure 1 – Comparing July 2024 to previous months of July 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 July in the period 2012–2024.

Year Nights Orbits Stations Max. Cams Min. Cams Mean Cams
2012 7 49 4 4 – 2.6
2013 22 484 10 18 – 12.9
2014 19 830 14 30 – 22.0
2015 28 976 15 43 – 26.7
2016 28 1420 18 50 10 37.9
2017 27 2644 20 63 30 51.6
2018 30 4098 19 72 59 67.7
2019 30 4139 21 86 63 75.2
2020 28 3823 24 90 59 79.1
2021 28 2525 27 81 55 67.3
2022 31 4499 30 100 80 91.7
2023 30 3966 36 112 89 102.1
2024 30 7671 45 128 112 121.5
Total 338 37124

 

The reason for this better-than-expected result is the significantly increased number of cameras in our network. Although it was common for some stations to have cloudy conditions, many meteors were still captured by the stations with clear conditions. Only in the night of 25–26 July not a single simultaneous event could be recorded. 58.5% of all orbits were obtained from more than two stations. That is a percentage that is comparable to other months. This percentage was mainly determined by the changeable first three weeks.

We welcome a new station this month. The data from the RMS camera NL000C in Elst (the Netherlands; CAMS -number 3191) have been made available to our network by Erwin Harkink since 13 July. This is a welcome addition to the coverage in the northern part of the BeNeLux. On average, more than 121 cameras were active every night this month. That is considerably more than a year ago in July. The reason for this is the substantial expansion with RMS cameras in recent months. We see in the July results that the RMS cameras capture just over twice as many orbits as the WATECS. No wonder, of course, given the larger field of view of these cameras, and the generally somewhat lower aiming height. Because a number of WATECS are currently not active (e.g. Texel and Oostkapelle), the coverage of these cameras is no longer optimal, that is reducing the chance of a simultaneous meteor.

In fact, the coverage of the WATEC camera fields should be upgraded with another optimization drive. Another minor reason for better results with RMS cameras, is that most RMS cameras are active above the southern part of the BeNeLux, and those regions often have better climate-wise conditions. Finally, we have to notice that not all WATECS are in operation every night. All in all, the WATECS continue to make a somewhat lesser, but valuable contribution to the results. There were at least 112 cameras active in each night this month.

Conclusion

July this year gave a record number of orbits, due to many new stations since the autumn of 2023.

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 July 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, CAMS 377), Jean-Marie Biets (Engelmanshoven, 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 398, 805 and 806 and RMS 3827), Jürgen Dörr (Wiesbaden, Germany, RMS 3810, 3811 and 3812), 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 (Burlage, Germany, RMS 3803 and 3804), Kees Habraken (Kattendijke, Netherlands, RMS 3780, 3781, 3782 and 3783), Erwin Harkink (Elst, Netherlands, RMS 3191), 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 and 3840, Tim Polfliet (Grimbergen, Belgium, RMS 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, 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).