Here are today’s solar images taken from Al Sadeem Observatory, September 23, 2020.

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

Having a clearer view as it further rotates into Earth-view, the enhanced plage region at the northeastern limb is showing signs of active sunspot formation but currently exhibiting small pores not enough to be designated an official new active region.  No significant flaring activity was recorded over the past 24 hours. The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 2. Other solar features observed were few small quiescent prominences at the limbs as 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, mainly from developing active region. 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, September 23, 2020, from NCM Al Wathba Station):

Average Temperature: 38.55°C

Average Humidity: 22%

Average Wind Speed and Direction: 27.75 kph from NNW

Average Cloud Cover: 5%

Average Air Pressure: 991.9 hPa

Average Solar Radiation: 155 W/m^2