Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, May 11, 2021.
The sky was clear with moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.
Solar activity has subsided a bit only to low levels over the past 24 hours. Some consolidation in their respective sunspot structures was observed in both bipolar sunspot groups AR2822 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Dao/beta-gamma) and AR2823 (Cao/beta). Both produced a couple of minor B-class solar flares throughout the monitoring period. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 34.
Other solar features observed were enhanced plages associated with AR2822, AR2823, few short stable filaments across the Sun’s disk, and several faint eruptive prominences, especially at the SW limb, as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at low to moderate levels with chances of solar flares of B-class to C-class (possibly up to isolated M-class) intensity, mainly from the upper-mentioned sunspot groups. 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 (5:00 PM – 5:25 PM, May 11, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 36.37°C
Average Humidity: 12.67%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 21.5 kph from NNW
Average Cloud Cover: 5%
Average Air Pressure: 995.63 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 282.33 W/m^2