Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, March 12, 2019.
The sky was clear with intermittent light to moderate winds which provided excellent transparency with average seeing at the time these images were taken.
The lone visible sunspot group AR2734 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Axx/alpha) has been decaying structure gradually and was inactive with no significant flaring activity was recorded over the past 24 hours as it approaches the western limb. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 11. Other solar features observed are a small filament within AR2734, as well as numerous prominences at the limbs (mostly tiny quiescent with the exception of a huge eruptive hedgerow one at the northwestern limb) as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to remain low with chances of weak X-ray fluxes or flares ranging up to B-class intensity, mainly from AR2734. The extent of the frequency and intensity of the Sun’s activity will highly depend on the magnetic flux fluctuations happening in the visible ARs in the coming 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 and Lunt H-alpha solar telescope and ZWO120MM CMOS camera for H-alpha imagery, mounted on Skywatcher EQ6 Pro. 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 (4:50PM – 5:05PM, March 12, 2019):
Average Temperature: 24.4°C
Average Humidity: 31%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 25.75 kph from NW
Average Cloud Cover: 0%
Average Air Pressure: 1007.05 hpa
Average Solar Radiation: 165.22 W/m^2
Average UV Radiation: 319.5 µW/m^2 (low)
