Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, April 19, 2019.
The sky was clear with light air turbulence which provided good seeing and transparency at the time these images were taken.
AR2738 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Hhx/alpha) is now approaching the western limb, departing from Earth-view, leaving the other sunspot group AR2739 (Cro/beta) trailing behind. Both active regions are stable and quiet with no significant flaring activity recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 23. H-alpha imagery revealed some huge eruptive prominences at the limbs, including the ones at the western limb associated with AR2738, tiny scattered plages of the mentioned sunspot groups and a stable filament situated north-northwest of AR2739.
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 (5:05 PM – 5:35 PM, April 19, 2019):
Average Temperature: 39.1°C
Average Humidity: 11%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 14 kph from S
Average Cloud Cover: 0%
Average Air Pressure: 997.9 hpa
Average Solar Radiation: 194.86 W/m^2
Average UV Radiation: 319.5 µW/m^2 (low)
