No sunspot monitoring post was issued yesterday, July 7, 2021, due to relatively hazy and partly cloudy skies which provided poor transparency not feasible to get some solar images.
Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, July 8, 2021.
The sky was generally clear with light breeze which provided good transparency and seeing at the time these images were taken.
Solar activity subsided further over the past 24 hours. All visible sunspot groups AR2839 (Axx/alpha) and AR2840 (Bxo/beta; approaching the NW limb) experienced decay in their respective structures; barely visible in white-light imagery. The only significant flaring activity throughout the monitoring period was a minor B6.8-class solar flare from former AR2837 The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 23.
Other noteworthy solar features observed were the enhanced plages of the disintegrating sunspot groups, few shallow mound filaments near the SW and NE limbs, and mostly small quiescent prominences at the limbs as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast a further decline in solar activity with minimal chances of B-class solar flares, from AR2839 in the 24-48 hours. 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, July 8, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 42.97°C
Average Humidity: 19.33%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 6.13 kph from various directions
Average Cloud Cover: 0%
Average Air Pressure: 989.0 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 152.0 W/m^2
