Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, October 28, 2020.
The sky was generally clear with intermittent light to moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.
AR2778 (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Eai/beta-gamma) exhibited further growth in structure and obtaining a more complex magnetic complexity. It produced some more minor B-class to C-class solar flares over the past 24 hours based on the recent space weather agency reports. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 24. The other two tiny enhanced plages which were observed yesterday lost their respective pores and have not been designated. Other noteworthy solar features observed were small faint quiescent prominences at the limbs (with the exception of a moderately huge pillar-shaped at the NE limb); together with enhanced plages associated with AR2778, and the other two decayed pore regions mentioned above as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.
Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at low levels with chances of B-class to C-class (possibly to isolated M-class) solar flare intensity, mainly from AR2778. 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 (4:30 PM – 5:00 PM, October 28, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):
Average Temperature: 32.37°C
Average Humidity: 19%
Average Wind Speed and Direction: 16.8 kph from NNE
Average Cloud Cover: 0%
Average Air Pressure: 1002.967 hPa
Average Solar Radiation: 133 W/m^2
