Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, May 20, 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 remained at very low levels over the past 24 hours. AR2824 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Cao/beta) exhibited not a significant change in its bipolar sunspot structure and produced only a few minor B-class solar flares throughout the monitoring period. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 12.
Enhanced plages associated with AR2824, several small quiescent prominences at the limbs, and a couple of short stable filaments across the Sun’s disk with the exception of a huge elongated one at the Sun’s meridian, were the other noteworthy solar features distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at very low levels with chances of solar flares of B-class to isolated C-class intensity, mainly from AR2824 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 (5:15 PM – 5:35 PM, May 20, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 42.8°C
Average Humidity: 11.0%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 21.45 kph from WNW
Average Cloud Cover: 0%
Average Air Pressure: 993.25 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 245.5 W/m^2