The 2022-10-30 meteor cluster

By Steinar Midtskogen, updated 2022-11-04

This page summarises the observations of the meteor cluster 2022-10-30 03:54 UTC by the Norwegian Meteor Network. 24 meteors were observed in less than ten seconds, 23 of which within 5 seconds. All meteors were recorded by the cameras at Gaustatoppen (59.85112N 8.65566E 1846 masl), 17 of these by the cameras in Larvik (59.0908611N 10.0981944E 50 masl) and 1 on these by a camera in Oslo (59.97056N 10.649639E 348 masl). 1 meteor was recorded from three sites, 16 from two sites and the remaining 7 only from Gaustatoppen. The 17 meteors recorded by multiple stations were carefully studied frame-by-frame to determine azimuth and altitude values and trajectories were calculated using fbspd_merge.py maintained by Eric Stempels. The cameras at Gaustatoppen and Larvik had somewhat similar lines of sight for most meteors, which limited the accuracy of the trajectory calculations for these meteors, and several meteors appeared near the corner of the field of view of the cameras where the lens geometry is difficult to model. In addition refraction introduces further complexity in particular for the first and most distant meteor. However, the trajectory of four meteors could be determined with good accuracy. Since most meteors lasted only around 0.2 seconds and the cameras were recording at 25 and 15 frames per second, the calculated entry speed showed some variation. The recordings from four cameras at Gaustatoppen were combined into a single recording in rectilinear (gnonomic) projection. This allowed tracing the meteor tracks visually back to a common radiant and offered an independent confirmation of the radiant calculated by the multi-site observation. Care was taken to syncronise the recordings. Preliminary results follow: The radiant RA/dec was found to be 127.7°/42.1° (Lynx). The entry speed was found to be 64.1 km/s.

Recordings from other stations stations in Norway were examined, but nothing was found suggesting that the meteors were restricted in an approximately 150×800 km area from the Baltic Sea across southern Sweden into Norway.

The table below summarises the observations. The meteor numbers correspond to the annotation in the image below.

A video showing the 23 meteors in rectilinear projection can be downloaded here.

meteor 1meteor 2meteor 3meteor 4meteor 5meteor 6meteor 7meteor 8meteor 9meteor 10meteor 11meteor 12meteor 13meteor 14meteor 15meteor 16meteor 17
Entry time:03:54:04.0803:54:08.9203:54:09.3203:54:09.5203:54:09.6803:54:09.9603:54:10.0003:54:10.2003:54:10.3203:54:10.6003:54:10.8403:54:11.6003:54:11.6403:54:12.2003:54:09.7203:54:11.6403:54:13.16
Entry altitude: 107.7 km 109.5 km 108.1 km 107.5 km 109.2 km 103.3 km 108.3 km 111.8 km 110.0 km 105.5 km 107.4 km 109.8 km 111.2 km 111.3 km 110.5 km 114.8 km 108.9 km
Terminal altitude: 68.1 km 89.8 km 96.9 km 92.7 km 97.0 km 87.1 km 90.5 km 97.1 km 97.9 km 90.4 km 93.1 km 94.9 km 93.6 km 94.5 km 95.5 km 99.0 km 96.2 km
Start position: 58.338N 20.669E 58.539N 16.109E 58.788N 13.020E 59.277N 17.379E 59.402N 14.956E 58.301N 15.415E 58.885N 16.178E 58.991N 11.693E 58.965N 12.128E 58.261N 15.183E 58.564N 15.538E 59.400N 10.284E 58.995N 16.947E 59.283N 13.262E 59.005N 8.647E 58.561N 8.618E 58.671N 8.847E
End position: 58.438N 20.581E 58.593N 16.058E 58.815N 12.979E 59.313N 17.349E 59.433N 14.927E 58.352N 15.290E 58.932N 16.091E 59.027N 11.630E 58.994N 12.073E 58.305N 15.113E 58.596N 15.508E 59.435N 10.210E 59.043N 16.888E 59.326N 13.203E 59.038N 8.566E 58.598N 8.532E 58.700N 8.779E
Direction: 335.1° 333.9° 322.0° 336.9° 334.7° 307.8° 316.6° 317.7° 316.2° 319.8° 333.5° 313.1° 327.4° 324.6° 308.9° 310.0° 309.8°
Incidence: 72.8° 71.1° 70.9° 73.5° 72.5° 60.3° 67.8° 69.9° 69.3° 67.2° 74.8° 69.0° 70.4° 71.0° 68.4° 67.8° 68.1°
Entry speed: 65.6 km/s 63.9 km/s 72.0 km/s 66.8 km/s 56.3 km/s 68.0 km/s 67.4 km/s 65.6 km/s 62.3 km/s 63.5 km/s 62.1 km/s 64.8 km/s 68.5 km/s 69.8 km/s 62.2 km/s 65.3 km/s 63.9 km/s
Radiant RA: 08:26 (126.6°) 08:12 (123.2°) 08:20 (125.1°) 08:09 (122.5°) 08:05 (121.3°) 09:22 (140.5°) 08:49 (132.5°) 08:25 (126.3°) 08:30 (127.7°) 08:41 (130.3°) 08:04 (121.2°) 08:29 (127.5°) 08:28 (127.2°) 08:17 (124.4°) 08:31 (127.9°) 08:30 (127.7°) 08:31 (127.8°)
Radiant dec: 42.1° 40.7° 42.3° 43.6° 42.9° 35.3° 40.4° 42.2° 41.9° 38.7° 44.3° 42.6° 41.3° 42.5° 42.5° 41.4° 41.8°
Triangulation:poorpoorpoorpoorpoorpoorpoorfairfairpoorpoorexcellentpoorpoorgoodgoodgood

annotated radiant

map

Below follow the start and end azimuths and altitutes for the 17 multi-site meteor observations.

Larvik:9.0908611N 10.0981944E 50 masl
Gaustatoppen: 59.85112N 8.65566E 1846 masl
Oslo: 59.97056N 10.649639E 348 masl

Meteor 1LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:93.25, 7.0498.42, 4.75
End:92.33, 3.6097.83, 2.31

Meteor 2LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:97.24, 14.83105.72, 11.33
End:96.76, 13.31105.14, 9.11

Meteor 3LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:99.98, 30.93113.60, 19.73
End:99.26, 28.97113.30, 18.17

Meteor 4LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:83.86, 11.9693.61, 9.68
End:83.59, 11.0793.19, 8.13

Meteor 5LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:80.44, 18.9695.29, 14.92
End:80.14, 18.1294.79, 13.25

Meteor 6LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:103.43, 15.51111.08, 11.46
End:103.14, 14.39110.84, 9.68

Meteor 7LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:90.96, 14.91100.87, 11.50
End:90.43, 13.27100.40, 9.51

Meteor 8LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:95.8, 49.36117.74, 28.07
End:93.99, 47.20117.26, 25.37

Meteor 9LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:95.89, 42.18115.10, 24.96
End:94.58, 39.97114.73, 22.87

Meteor 10LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:105.19, 17.27112.48, 12.10
End:104.77, 15.74112.15, 10.34

Meteor 11LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:98.22, 16.94107.05, 12.18
End:97.79, 15.23106.70, 10.45

Meteor 12LarvikGaustatoppenOslo
Start:16.84, 71.4510.53, 68.10200.46, 56.70
End:10.53, 68.10117.20, 42.54201.94, 55.78

Meteor 13LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:88.46, 13.4697.86, 10.59
End:87.98, 12.0097.35, 8.72

Meteor 14LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:81.64, 29.89101.66, 20.87
End:80.46, 27.25100.87, 18.09

Meteor 15LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:264.57, 51.26180.31, 48.40
End:266.27, 47.92183.25, 45.31

Meteor 16LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:237.73, 44.86180.88, 37.28
End:239.41, 42.42181.83, 35.80

Meteor 17LarvikGaustatoppen
Start:237.77, 50.88175.17, 38.26
End:240.57, 47.38176.80, 35.56