Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, June 16, 2021.
The sky was generally clear with moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.
The lone visible sunspot group AR2833 (Hsx/alpha) exhibited very little to no noticeable change in its large unipolar sunspot structure. It is currently quiet with no significant flaring activity recorded over the past 24 hours. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 11.
Enhanced plages at the southern section of AR2833, few short stable filaments across the Sun’s disk, and some huge eruptive prominences especially at the NW and NE limbs, were the other noteworthy solar features distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to remain at very low levels with chances of solar flares of mostly B-class to possibly isolated C-class intensity, mainly from AR2833 in the next few days. 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 (5:30 PM – 6:00 PM, June 16, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 38.7°C
Average Humidity: 25.0%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 23.77 kph from WNW
Average Cloud Cover: 0%
Average Air Pressure: 988.0 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 171.33 W/m^2
