Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, January 28, 2021.
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 at very low levels over the past 24 hours. The lone visible designated sunspot group AR2797 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Axx/alpha) has further decayed in structure (barely visible in white-light solar imagery) and remained inactive. Meanwhile, the recently designated sunspot group AR2800 (Bxo/beta) also exhibited decay in its spot structure a few hours after its designation. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 23.
Several moderately huge eruptive prominences particularly at the northeastern and southeastern sides, few short stable filaments across the Sun’s disk, and the enhanced plages associated with AR2797 at the southwestern quadrant, AR2800, and the undeveloped one at the northern hemisphere as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity gradual decrease in solar activity but still within low levels with chances of solar flares of up to B-class (possibly isolated C-class) intensity, mainly from AR2797. Close monitoring is being conducted by numerous space weather agencies for any significant development, especially from the emerging new developing active region.
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 (4:30 PM – 5:00 PM, January 28, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 27.27°C
Average Humidity: 21.67%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 6.37 kph from SSW
Average Cloud Cover: 0%
Average Air Pressure: 1007.57 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 218.0 W/m^2
