Video Observation of Meteors in the CEMeNt Network in January and February 2025
The Quadrantid meteor shower activity period at the beginning of January marks the end of the high activity of meteor showers that begins annually in July. Similarly, sporadic background activity decreases to its annual minimum, which occurs in March and April. In general, the period from January to April is called the "Great Spring Hole" as only isolated weak meteor showers are active, mostly originating from the antihelion source. Unfavorable winter weather is also an obstacle to meteor observation, and low-altitude stations often experience a typical phenomenon of autumn and winter months - inversion weather patterns. This fact has an unfavorable impact on the number of paired meteors and thus on the number of multi-station trajectories. The Quadrantid meteor shower maximum in 2025 coincided precisely with characteristic winter weather, and only isolated meteors of this strong shower could be observed at the CEMeNt (Central European MetEor NeTwork) stations. Overall, however, the weather during January and February was favorable, with at least one meteor recorded at one of the network stations on 22 nights in January and 21 nights in February.
The Quadrantid meteor shower maximum occurred in the morning hours of January 3, 2025, with the CEMeNt network cameras recording a total of 79 multi-station Quadrantid trajectories. According to the visual activity graph of the IMO VMD B ( International Meteor Organization Visual Meteor Database ), the maximum corrected hourly rate of Quadrantids this year reached 49.6 ± 4.0 meteors, with the maximum occurring on January 3, 2025, at 9:55 UT. The Quadrantid meteor shower activity was therefore below average this year, and observations of activity before the maximum on the morning of January 3, 2025, were practically impossible in Central Europe due to low cloud cover.
In 2015 (January 10 at 2:50 UT), an outburst of the kappa Cancrid meteor shower was recorded, observed by both video stations and radio stations dedicated to meteor observation. Shower activity was also found in data from 2016, in the IMO VMN ( IMO Video Network ) and SonotaC databases. In 2025, not a single meteor path from this shower was recorded in the CEMeNt network, which likely has irregular activity, with observed activity peaks related to the orbital period of an unknown parent body of cometary origin.
Fig. 1: Total 2D projection of multi-station atmospheric trajectories recorded in the CEMeNt network in January 2025. Author: Jakub Koukal
Fig. 2: Total 2D projection of multi-station atmospheric trajectories recorded in the CEMeNt network in February 2025. Author: Jakub Koukal
Fig. 3: Radiants of shower and sporadic multi-station meteors recorded in the CEMeNt network in January and February 2025. A sinusoidal projection with an equatorial coordinate system is used for the display. Author: Jakub Koukal
In January (January 1, 2025), the imaging camera at the Jablonec station (SK, Jakub Kapuš) was changed. The existing CCD Watec 902 H2 Ultimate camera was replaced with a system using a CMOS camera with a Sony Starvis IMX 327 LQR chip. This camera operates with FHD resolution of 1920 × 1080 px (2.1 MPx) and a frame rate of 30 fps. The high-aperture Starlight lens (f/0.95) with a fixed focal length (4 mm) in this configuration provides a field of view of 89 (± 1) × 50°. Since January 2025, a mobile camera equipped with a CMOS camera with a Sony Starvis IMX 290 LQR chip has also been operational, operating alternately in Zlín and Púchov locations (CZ/SK, Alexandra Mikušková). The camera operates with FHD resolution of 1920 × 1080 px (2.1 MPx) and a frame rate of 30 fps. The high-aperture Starlight lens (f/0.95) with a fixed focal length (4 mm) in this configuration provides a field of view of 89 (± 1) × 50°.
Fig. 4: Projection of multi-station meteor trajectories belonging to the Quadrantid (QUA) meteor shower in the Solar System. A total of 79 multi-station QUA meteor shower trajectories were recorded in January 2025. Author: Jakub Koukal
Fig. 5: Composite image of 820 meteors recorded by the FHD IMX 327 system at the Jablonec N station during January 2025. Author: Jakub Koukal
In January 2025, the CEMeNt network cameras recorded 6,610 single-station meteors, the combination of which created 1,364 multi-station trajectories (Fig. 1, 3). As of today, observations from outer perimeter network stations are not included in the processing, namely from Rokycany (CZ), Plzeň (CZ), Karlovy Vary (CZ), Blahová (SK), and Zvolenská Slatina (SK), whose processing is not complete.
Table 1: Overview of multi-station trajectory counts for individual meteor showers recorded in the CEMeNt network in January and February 2025. Author: Jakub Koukal
In February 2025, the CEMeNt network cameras recorded 9,594 single-station meteors, the combination of which created 2,229 multi-station trajectories (Fig. 2, 3). As of today, observations from outer perimeter network stations are not included in the processing, namely from Rokycany (CZ), Plzeň (CZ), Karlovy Vary (CZ), Blahová (SK), and Zvolenská Slatina (SK), whose processing is not complete.
The most multi-station trajectories (Table 1) belong to the sporadic background (3,027 trajectories), followed by the Quadrantid meteor shower (79 trajectories, Fig. 4) and then other weaker meteor showers, including members of the antihelion source with radiants in Coma Berenices, Cancer, and Leo. The number of single-station meteors (as well as multi-station trajectories) is historically the highest ever in the CEMeNt network throughout its entire history since 2009. Pairing efficiency in February 2025 increased to 67.5%, which is the highest pairing efficiency value in the network's history. Two out of three single-station meteors were therefore paired with a single-station meteor at another station, and the station/trajectory ratio increased to 2.91 in February 2025. A total of 16,204 single-station meteors have been recorded so far this year (as of February 28, 2025), the combination of which created 3,593 multi-station trajectories (Table 2).
Table 2: Overview of recorded and paired meteor counts in 2025 at CEMeNt network stations. Author: Jakub Koukal
Fig. 6: Bright fireball recorded by the MAR SE camera at the Maruška station. The fireball belonged to sporadic meteors, with the beginning of the ablation trajectory at 97.8 km altitude and its end at 67.3 km above Earth's surface. The fireball reached a maximum absolute magnitude of -5.1 mag. Author: Valašské Meziříčí Observatory, p.o.
Fig. 7: Bright fireball recorded by the MAR SW camera at the Maruška station. The fireball belonged to sporadic meteors, with the beginning of the ablation trajectory at 109.8 km altitude and its end at 78.7 km above Earth's surface. The fireball reached a maximum absolute magnitude of -6.7 mag. Author: Valašské Meziříčí Observatory, p.o.
Acknowledgments
Thanks go to DEZA , a.s. and CS CABOT , spol. s r.o., which contributed to the acquisition of equipment for FHD stations located at the Valašské Meziříčí Observatory, p.o. and also within the CEMeNt network. Thanks go to all partner observatories (Ždánice, Vsetín, Rokycany, Plzeň, Karlovy Vary, Partizánske, Kysucké Nové Mesto) and also to private station owners (Milan Čermák, Richard Kačerek, Jakub Kapuš, Tibor Csorgei, Vladimír Bahýl) for supporting the activities and growth of the network. Thanks also go to all interested institutions for supporting the activities and growth of the network. The RPOS project (Development of Cross-Border Observation Network) was co-financed by the Small Projects Fund of the Interreg V-A Slovakia - Czech Republic 2014 - 2020 program, call code 5/FMP/11b, reg. no. CZ/FMP/11b/05/058. The KOSOAP (Cooperating Network in the Field of Astronomical Professional-Observation Programs) and RPKS (Development of Cross-Border Cooperating Network for Professional Work and Education) projects were implemented by the observatories of Valašské Meziříčí (CZ) and Kysucké Nové Mesto (SK) in cooperation with SMPH (Society for Interplanetary Matter). The projects were co-financed by the Microproject Fund of the Operational Program for Cross-Border Cooperation Slovakia - Czech Republic 2007-2013. The project for the purchase and operation of high-resolution spectroscopic cameras is partially funded by the Regional Cooperation Program of the Czech Academy of Sciences, reg. no. R200402101.
