Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, October 9, 2020.

The sky was mostly clear with intermittent moderate breeze which provided good transparency but average seeing at the time these images were taken.

There are two designated active sunspot regions existing in the Sun at the moment. Both AR2774 and AR275 are exhibiting weak bipolar structure (Modified Zurich/Mcintosh sunspot configuration: Bxo/beta) and currently quiet.  No significant flaring activity was recorded. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 24. Small scattered plages associated with the upper mentioned sunspot regions, short stable filaments at the far northern hemisphere, and mostly minor quiescent prominences at the limbs were distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to be at very low levels with chances of weak X-ray fluxes or flares up to B-class intensity. 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 9, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 36.1°C

Average Humidity: 31.5%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 23.6 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 0%

Average Air Pressure: 998.9 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 102.5 W/m^2