Several sunspot groups are visible in the Sun’s disk with fluctuating intensity of solar activity was observed over the past few days.

AR2842 (Dso/beta) exhibited further growth in sunspot structure, attained a more complex magnetic configuration, and was the main source of mostly weak B-class solar flares over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, the far-SE sunspot group AR2844 (Axx/alpha) and AR2845 (Bxo/beta) are both in a state of decay and were generally inactive. Two small sunspot groups were seen showing up at the Sun’s NE quadrant (encircled), including the bipolar active region (former AR2838) which produced an X-class solar flare 2 weeks ago. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 47. 

Other noteworthy solar features observed were the enhanced plages of the upper-mentioned sunspot groups, short stable filaments across the Sun’s disk, and small quiescent prominences mainly at the NE limb, as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast a further decline in 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.