Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, July 28, 2020.
The sky was partly cloudy with intermittent light to moderate breeze (from a dissipating thunderstorm cloud) which provided average transparency and seeing at the time these images were taken.
There are two sunspot groups existing in the Sun at this moment. First, AR2767 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Hsx/alpha) experienced minimal to no change in its unipolar sunspot structure. Meanwhile, the other sunspot group recently designated as AR2768 has appeared into Earth-view from the northeastern limb. It appears to exhibit a reverse bipolar magnetic polarity, signifying that it belongs to Solar Cycle 25, though it’s not yet clearly classified because it is currently oriented sideways. No significant flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 23. H-alpha imagery revealed several non-Earth directed huge eruptive prominence activities at the limbs, alongside the tiny enhanced plages near AR2767 and AR2768 both being stable and quiescent at this point.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to remain at very low levels with chances of weak X-ray fluxes or flares up to B-class intensity. 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 QHYCCD290III 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 (5:35 PM – 6:00 PM, July 28, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 42.5°C
Average Humidity: 25.33%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 5.77 kph from SE
Average Cloud Cover: 70%
Average Air Pressure: 990.17 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 186.33 W/m^2
