Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, October 21, 2020.
The sky was generally clear with intermittent moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.
The lone visible sunspot group AR2776 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Hsx/alpha) has remained generally magnetically stable and inactive over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, space weather agencies recorded few minor B-class flares from an emerging small active region at the northwestern limb. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 12. Few huge eruptive prominences specifically at the southwestern, southeastern, and northeastern limbs; as well as the few small enhanced plages associated from the mentioned developing active region, AR2776, and former AR2773 (near the northeastern limb) 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 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 21, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 36.15°C
Average Humidity: 4%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 6.85 kph from NE
Average Cloud Cover: 0%
Average Air Pressure: 1000.6 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 100 W/m^2
