Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, May 7, 2021.
The sky was mostly clear with moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.Â
A small sunspot group which turned out to be AR2817 (encircled; will be redesignated by space weather agencies) from the previous rotation has returned into Earth-view. Its magnetic configuration is not determined yet due to its proximity to the NE limb. No significant flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 13.
Nothing much significant going on with the Sun lately except for few short stable filaments across the solar disk and small quiescent prominences at the limbs as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at low levels (just a slight increase) with chances of solar flares of B-class intensity, mainly from the upper-mentioned active sunspot region. 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 – 5:20 PM, May 7, 2021, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 36.23°C
Average Humidity: 31.67%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 17.27 kph from NNW
Average Cloud Cover: 15%
Average Air Pressure: 997.53 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 230.0 W/m^2
