Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, April 23, 2020.
The sky was partly to mostly cloudy (imaged through brief sky “windows”) with intermittent light to moderate winds which provided average to poor transparency and seeing at the time these images were taken.
The Sun remains spotless and quiet over the past 24 hours, extending its streak to 18 consecutive days. No major flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 0. The Sun exhibited few moderately huge prominences at the northeastern limb and a tiny enhanced plage emerging from the eastern limb as the only noteworthy solar features distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to remain at low levels with chances of weak X-ray fluxes or flares ranging 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 and Lunt H-alpha solar telescope and QHYCCDIII mono 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 (5:15 PM – 5:45 PM, April 23, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 34.33°C
Average Humidity: 28.33%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 19.33 kph from N
Average Cloud Cover: 80%
Average Air Pressure: 999 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 188.67 W/m^2
