Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, October 19, 2020.
The sky was generally clear with intermittent moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.
AR2777, which emerged yesterday at the southwestern limb, has approached the southwestern limb, away from Earth-view (not visible in today’s solar images). On the other hand, the lone visible sunspot group AR2776 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Cso/beta) further expanded in coverage area with its tiny trailer spots scattering apart, while it is about to transit the Sun’s southern hemisphere. Space weather agencies recorded only a few minor B-class flares from this sunspot group over the past 48 hours. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 18. Few huge eruptive prominences at the southwestern, southeastern, and northeastern limbs; as well as the small enhanced plages associated with AR2776 were distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at low levels with chances of weak X-ray fluxes or flares up to B-class (possibly up to isolated C-class) intensity, mainly from AR2776. 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 QHYCCD290III 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, October 19, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 33.3°C
Average Humidity: 23%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 25.05 kph from NNW
Average Cloud Cover: 0%
Average Air Pressure: 999.45 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 84 W/m^2
