Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, November 19, 2018.
The sky was mostly clear with intermittent light to moderate (to at times fresh) winds making the seeing and transparency average to poor at the time these images were taken.
AR2727 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Cro/beta) has been experiencing gradual decay after the past 2 (weekend) days of sunspot growth, particularly on its small intermediate and trailer spots. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 13. Few minor, otherwise, no major solar flares, only weak X-ray fluxes (in B-level) associated with this sunspot group were recorded by space weather agencies. H-alpha imagery revealed some small prominences at the limbs and the associated plage of AR2727.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to remain at very low levels with chances of weak X-ray fluxes or flares ranging up to B-class intensity. 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 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)
