Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, April 24, 2021.
The sky was mostly clear with intermittent light to moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.
Solar activity over the past 24 hours eased a bit with mainly B-class and C-class solar flare activity which came from the decaying AR2816 (Cro/beta) and AR2817 (behind the NW limb). Additionally, two new bipolar sunspot groups have emerged on the Sun’s disk; first is AR2819 (Bxo/beta) and the more complex AR2820 (Dro/beta) which rapidly grew in structure beside AR2818. Few minor B-class solar flares were also recorded from AR2820. Meanwhile, AR2818 (Hsx/alpha) remained stable and inactive. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 61.
Enhanced plages associated with the upper mentioned sunspot groups, few elongated filaments mostly at the Sun’s southern hemisphere, and some huge and a few small faint quiescent and moderately huge eruptive prominences mainly at the NW and SE limbs, were the other notable solar features distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at low to moderate levels with chances of solar flares of B-class to C-class intensity (possibly up to M-class), mainly from the upper-mentioned active sunspot regions. Close monitoring is being conducted by numerous space weather agencies for any significant development.
Equipment used are Skywatcher 120mm refractor telescope with Baader filter and unmodified Canon EOS 1D Mark IV DSLR camera for visible imagery. For H-alpha imagery, the equipment used are Lunt 60mm H-alpha solar telescope, and QHYCCD 290III mono camera; all mounted on Skywatcher EQ6 pro mount Pre-processing of visible solar images was performed in PIPP, stacking in Autostakkert, slight wavelet adjustments in Registax 6, and post-processing in Adobe Photoshop CC.
*TECHNICAL REPORTS COURTESY OF SOLAR INFLUENCE DATA CENTER (SIDC), NOAA-SPACE WEATHER PREDICTION CENTER (NOAA-SWPC)
Weather Data (5:00 PM – 5:30 PM, April 24, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 39.63°C
Average Humidity: 6.33%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 22.8 kph from NNW
Average Cloud Cover: 0%
Average Air Pressure: 997.13 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 228.67 W/m^2
