No sunspot monitoring posts were issued from April 27-29, 2021, due to unfavorable weather conditions prevailed on those dates.
Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, April 30, 2021.
The sky was mostly clear with intermittent moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.
A gradual decrease in solar activity was observed due to the sunspot structure decay of both AR2820 (Bxo/beta) and AR2821 (Hsx/alpha) wherein most minor B-class solar flares were recorded over the past few days. In contrast, AR2818 (Hsx/alpha) remained stable and inactive. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 35.
Enhanced plages associated with the upper mentioned sunspot groups, few elongated eruptive filaments at the extreme southern hemisphere, and a small quiescent prominence mainly at the SW limb, were the other notable solar features distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at very low levels with chances of solar flares of B-class to C-class intensity, mainly from the upper-mentioned active sunspot regions as they approach the SW limb. 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 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 (5:00 PM – 5:30 PM, April 30, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 32.2°C
Average Humidity: 22.67%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 26.27 kph from WNW
Average Cloud Cover: 2%
Average Air Pressure: 997.37 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 247.0 W/m^2
