Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, August 5, 2021.
The sky was generally clear with moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.
Solar activity has remained at very low levels over the past 24 hours. AR2850 (Axx/alpha) decayed further in its structure into plage (barely visible in white-light imagery). Meanwhile, two new small sunspot groups emerged and were recently designated; the first is AR2851 (Bxo/beta) situated at the Sun’s meridian and AR2852 (Bxo/beta) at the SE quadrant. No significant flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 35.
Enhanced plages associated with the upper-mentioned sunspot groups, and several moderately huge eruptive prominences mainly at NW and SW limbs were distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast very low solar activity with chances of B-class to C-class solar flares 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.
*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 5, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 39.5°C
Average Humidity: 35.67%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 18.6 kph from WNW
Average Cloud Cover: 10%
Average Air Pressure: 997.0 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 136.0 W/m^2
