Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, October 12, 2020.
The sky was mostly clear with intermittent moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.
Solar activity has remained generally low over the past 48 hours (from the previous post). AR2774 has completely decayed to plage. Meanwhile, AR2775 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Bxo/beta) exhibited gradual sunspot structure disintegration with a relatively weak magnetic shear. No significant flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 16. Small enhanced plages associated with the upper mentioned sunspot regions, few short stable filaments mostly at the far northern hemisphere, and some moderately huge eruptive prominences at the limbs were distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at very low levels with chances of weak X-ray fluxes or flares up to B-class intensity. 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 QHYCCD290III 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 – 5:20 PM, October 12, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 32.8°C
Average Humidity: 45.5%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 25.05 kph from NNW
Average Cloud Cover: 0%
Average Air Pressure: 998.45 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 89.5 W/m^2
