Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, August 19, 2021.
The sky was mostly clear (light cirrus clouds) with light breeze which provided good seeing but average transparency at the time these images were taken.
Solar activity has been at low levels over the past 24 hours. AR2857 (Axx/alpha) regenerated a single spot but is currently in a state of decay shortly. On the other hand, AR2858 (Cro/beta) slightly grew in spot size, remained relatively magnetically stable, and produced a couple of weak B-class solar enhancements throughout the monitoring period. No significant flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 25.
Enhanced plages of the upper mentioned sunspot groups, some small quiescent and huge eruptive prominences at the NE (including a shallow filament) and SW limbs were distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast very low solar activity of only B-class solar flares in the next few days, mainly from AR2858. 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 (5:30 PM – 6:00 PM, August 19, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 41.93°C
Average Humidity: 22%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 4.57 kph from various directions
Average Cloud Cover: 35%
Average Air Pressure: 998.0 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 138.67 W/m^2