Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, April 9, 2019.

The sky was mostly clear with intermittent light to moderate winds which provided average seeing and transparency at the time these images were taken.

The lone visible large sunspot group AR2738 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Hhx/alpha) continues to produce several minor B-class solar flares over the past 24 hours, with a B5.6 class flare the notable one recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 12. Several large eruptive prominence activities at the limbs, as well as the ongoing flaring activity in AR2738, its clear umbral and penumbral structure and associated faculae were distinctively captured in H-alpha and white-light imagery respectively.

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 (possibly up to isolated C-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 – 6:05PM, April 9, 2019):

Average Temperature: 35.9°C

Average Humidity: 16.6%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 23.3 kph from N

Average Cloud Cover: 15%

Average Air Pressure: 996.78 hpa

Average Solar Radiation:  125.852 W/m^2

Average UV Radiation: 187.2 µW/m^2 (low)