Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, July 8, 2019.

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

The lone visible sunspot group AR2744 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Bxo/beta) situated at the far southern hemisphere produced few minor B-class solar features over the past 48 hours. Barely seen in white-light imagery, it is evident that it is gradually decaying, while exhibiting opposite magnetic polarity which signifies the following Solar Cycle 25 is underway (more details here).  The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 12.  H-alpha imagery revealed the tiny plage of AR2744 and some prominence activities, especially the huge eruptive one at the northwestern limb.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to remain at very low levels with chances of weak X-ray fluxes or flares ranging up to B-class intensity. 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 (5:55 PM – 6:10 PM, July 8, 2019):

Average Temperature: 39.7°C

Average Humidity: 30.5%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 19.65 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 984.65 hpa

Average Solar Radiation: 130.735 W/m^2

Average UV Radiation: 45 µW/m^2 (low)