In the early morning of May 9, 2025, the CEMeNt network recorded two meteors from the Eta Aquarid stream separated by 2 seconds. Orbit analysis and Monte Carlo (1.6% random; D_D=0.008; D_SH=0.018) confirm a fragmentation pair – likely fragments of a single meteoroid that broke up before entering the atmosphere.
Despite relatively high meteoric activity, the first quarter of 2025 was poor in bright meteors. However, the night of April 12/13, 2025 broke this pattern dramatically. Two bright fireballs were recorded in the late night hours, separated by less than two hours.
On November 21, 2024, at 01:25:05 UT, a bright bolide illuminated the skies over central Moravia, captured by five wide-field cameras of the Central European Meteor Network (CEMeNt). Designated as fireball 20241121_012505, its atmospheric path extended from Vidče to the southern edge of Olomouc, covering 80.7 km in 1.2 seconds at an entry angle of 37.1° and a pre-atmospheric speed of 72.19 km/s. Identified as part of the Leonid meteor shower, the meteoroid's high-speed retrograde orbit and cometary origin trace back to 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. With an absolute magnitude of -5.7m, the event offered a spectacular glimpse into celestial dynamics.
On June 2, 2024, a rare bright fireball from the weak June ro-Draconids meteor shower (IAU MDC 0686) was captured by six CEMeNt network cameras and spectrographs. The fireball, 20240602_204346, traveled 39.4 km in 1.1 seconds at a pre-atmospheric speed of 36.62 km/s, entering the atmosphere at an angle of 49.1°. Its radiant was in the Draco constellation, and its orbit, with high eccentricity (e = 0.955), linked it to 1P/Halley. Spectral analysis revealed its cometary origin, classifying it as a typical long-period meteoroid.
