A summary of the activity of the CAMS BeNeLux network during the month of September 2018 is presented. September 2018 counted many clear nights. 29160 meteors were recorded,15833 of which proved multiple station, or 54%. A total of 5606 orbits were collected during this month.
1 Introduction
September is a month with the richest meteor activity without any major shower contributing. Nights get longer and allow easily up to eight and more hours of capture. Most years September has stable and in general favorable weather for astronomy in the BeNeLux region. Past few years the network obtained impressive numbers of orbits during this month. Would 2018 confirm the reputation of the month September?
2 September 2018 statistics
CAMS BeNeLux collected 29160 meteors of which 15833 or 54% were multi-station, good for 5606 orbits. This is a new record for the month of September. The exceptional dry weather that dominated 2018 since mid-April continued in September. This month counted as many as 19 nights with more than 100 orbits. The best September night was 28–29 with as many as 498 orbits in a single night. Only two nights remained without any orbits. The statistics of September 2018 are compared in Figure 1 and Table 1 with the same month in previous years since the start of CAMS BeNeLux in 2012. In 7 years, 180 September nights allowed to obtain orbits with a grand total of 19404 orbits collected during September during all these years together.
The strategic important CAMS station Oostkapelle was back operational end September after about 6 months of renovation work. Another cornerstone of the network, Ooltgenplaat, remained non-active as well as Dourbes and Langemark. Technical problems with some cameras at different stations could be solved within few days. While September 2017 had a maximum of 83 cameras, 70.2 on average available, September 2018 had 80 cameras at best and 65.4 on average. The record number of orbits was the result of the exceptional number of clear nights combined with the use of AutoCams at almost all stations.
On 4 September camera 3900 had its first orbits. This new camera operated by Tioga Gulon is installed in Nancy, France and has a large overlap with many other cameras. Whenever Nancy has clear sky, impressive numbers of orbits are obtained. During its first few weeks as many as 446 orbits were obtained, the highest score of all cameras.
Figure 1 – Comparing September 2018 to previous months of September 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 – September 2018 compared to previous months of September.
| Year | Nights | Orbits | Stations | Max. Cams | Min. Camas | Mean Cams |
| 2012 | 18 | 209 | 5 | 5 | – | 3.4 |
| 2013 | 19 | 712 | 9 | 20 | – | 13.7 |
| 2014 | 27 | 1293 | 14 | 32 | – | 22.0 |
| 2015 | 29 | 2763 | 15 | 46 | – | 30.0 |
| 2016 | 30 | 3982 | 19 | 54 | 32 | 46.5 |
| 2017 | 29 | 4839 | 22 | 83 | 47 | 70.2 |
| 2018 | 28 | 5606 | 20 | 80 | 57 | 65.4 |
| Total | 180 | 19404 |
3 Conclusion
September 2018 confirmed the reputation of this month with a very rich background meteor activity and favorable weather. Even with less cameras more orbits were collected than in 2017.
Acknowledgment
Many thanks to all participants in the CAMS BeNeLux network for their dedicated efforts. Thanks to Martin Breukers for providing all the data on which this report is based. The CAMS BeNeLux team was operated by the following volunteers during the month of September 2018:
Hans Betlem (Leiden, CAMS 371, 372 and 373), Jean-Marie Biets (Wilderen, CAMS 380, 381 and 382), Martin Breukers (Hengelo, CAMS 320, 321, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326, 327, 328 and 329), Bart Dessoy (Zoersel, CAMS 397, 398, 804, 805 and 806), Jean-Paul Dumoulin / Christian Wanlin (Grapfontaine, CAMS 814 and 815), Luc Gobin (Mechelen, CAMS 390, 391, 807 and 808), Tioga Gulon (Nancy, France, CAMS 3900), Robert Haas (Alphen aan de Rijn, CAMS 3160, 3161, 3162, 3163, 3164, 3165, 3166 and 3167), Robert Haas / Edwin van Dijk (Burlage, CAMS 801, 802, 821 and 822), Robert Haas (Texel, CAMS 810, 811, 812 and 813), Klaas Jobs (Oostkapelle, 3030, 3031, 3032, 3033, 3034, 3035, 3036 and 3037), Carl Johannink (Gronau, CAMS 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317 and 318), Hervé Lamy (Ukkel, CAMS 393), Koen Miskotte (Ermelo, CAMS 351, 352, 353 and 354), Piet Neels (Terschelling, CAMS 841, 842, 843 and 844), Tim Polfliet (Gent, CAMS 396), Steve Rau (Zillebeke, CAMS 3850 and 3852), Paul Roggemans (Mechelen, CAMS 383, 384, 388, 389, 399 and 809), Hans Schremmer (Niederkruechten, CAMS 803), Erwin van Ballegoij (CAMS 347 and 348) and Marco Van der weide (CAMS 3110).
