Solar activity has reached moderate levels over the past 24 hours.  The largest sunspot group AR2860 (Dki/beta-gamma), situated at the Sun’s meridian, grew even further and produced several moderately strong C-class and an M4.7-class solar flare which are all Earth-directed. Its effects on geomagnetic activity in the next few days  are being closely monitoring by space weather agencies, with expectations of a weak G1 geomagnetic storm, enhanced aurora activity in the polar regions, and possible minor disruptions on space-based satellite radio communications.

Meanwhile, the other visible sunspot groups AR2859 (Cso/beta), AR2861 (Axx/alpha), and departing AR2862 (Bxo/beta) were relatively stable and produce only few minor B-class solar flares.The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 63. 

Small enhanced plages associated with the upper mentioned sunspot groups, several elongated filaments across the Sun’s disk, and few moderately huge eruptive prominences mostly at the SW and SE limbs were the other solar features distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast low solar activity with increasing chances of C-class solar flares and possibly isolated M-class flares from the upper mentioned sunspot groups (especially AR2860) in the next few 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. 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.