Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, April 7, 2019.

The sky was mostly clear with intermittent light to moderate winds which provided average seeing and transparency at the time these images were taken.

A large sunspot region was spotted (encircled) reappearing into Earth-view from the eastern limb, which turned out to be the returning AR2736. Its leader spot developed significantly in size; was the source of multiple minor B-class flares, based on space weather agency records. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 11.  Some moderately large quiescent prominences at the limbs, and a plage associated with former AR2737 were the other solar features visible as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at low levels with chances of weak X-ray fluxes or flares ranging up to B-class (possibly up to isolated C-class) intensity,mainly from the recurring AR2736. The extent of the frequency and intensity of the Sun’s activity will highly depend on the magnetic flux fluctuations happening in the visible ARs in the coming 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 and Lunt H-alpha solar telescope and ZWO120MM CMOS camera for H-alpha imagery, mounted on Skywatcher EQ6 Pro. 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 (9:00AM – 9:20AM, April 7, 2019):

Average Temperature: 33.1°C

Average Humidity: 19%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 17.1 kph from S

Average Cloud Cover: 20%

Average Air Pressure: 1000.8 hpa

Average Solar Radiation: 718.86W/m^2

Average UV Radiation: 1400 µW/m^2 (moderate)