Solar activity is at moderate levels over the past 24 hours. The lone visible large sunspot group AR2882 (Dso/beta-gamma) continues to exhibit some structural growth and separation of its magnetically complex spot region above its huge leader spot. Surprisingly, it has been producing few C-class solar flares and an Earth-directed M1.6-class solar flare associated with a type II radio emission and possible halo CME this morning, Oct. 9, which is now being closely monitored by space weather agencies for its potential effects on geomagnetic activity in the next few days. Another small enhanced region of pores is spotted developing at the near-past meridian of the Sun’s southern hemisphere (encircled) The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 20.

Other solar features observed were some small quiescent prominences at the NE and SW limbs, the enhanced plages associated with AR2822 and other spotless regions, and few short stable filaments across the Sun’s disk as distinctively captured in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* expect low solar activity to persist with the likelihood of flaring activities up to C-class (possibly up to M-class) levels in the next few 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. For H-alpha imagery, the equipment used are Lunt 60mm H-alpha solar telescope, and QHYCCD 290III 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.