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Sunspot drawing or sunspot sketching is the act of drawing sunspots. Sunspots are darker spots on the Sun's photosphere. Their prediction is very important for radio communication because they are strongly associated with solar activity, which can seriously damage radio equipment. [1]
Sunspots were probably first drawn by an English monk John of Worcester on 8 December 1128. There are records of observing sunspots from 28 BC, but that is the first known drawing of sunspots, almost 500 years before the telescope. His drawing seems to come around solar maximum. Five days later, the Korean astronomer saw the northern lights above his country, so this is also the first prediction of coronal mass ejection. [2] [3]
In 1612, Galileo Galilei was writing letters on sunspots to Mark Welser. They were published in 1613. In his telescope, he saw some darker spots on Sun's surface. It seems like he was observing the Sun and drawing sunspots without any filter, which is very hard. He said, "The spots seen at sunset are observed to change the place from one evening to the next, descending from the part of the sun then uppermost, and the morning spots ascend from the part then below ...". From there it seems that he observed the Sun at sunset, but not at sunrise because of the high horizon of Apennines. It is also possible, that he was referring to Scheiner's observation, where he first saw that the Sun is rotating. He complained that he couldn't observe the Sun every morning and evening because of low clouds and so he couldn't see their motion with confidence. He Probably never observed them in the middle of the day. In the same year, his student Benedetto Castelli invented a new method for observing and drawing sunspots, the projection method. Probably, he was never looking at the Sun directly through the telescope. [4] [5]
The Mount Wilson observatory started drawing sunspots by hand in 1917. This tradition continues still today. The early drawers did not draw their shapes and positions very accurately because they wanted just to mark where the sunspots were on the magnetic data. However, in modern times, the drawers became very accurate and sunspot drawing became art; sometimes they needed many hours to complete work. On the white acid-free paper, they draw a circle with solar coordinates and draw and mark sunspots. [6]
With a pinhole and a screen one can produce an image of the Sun. [7] But for better viewings of the sunspots one needs a telescope with 8 inches of diameter or more. There are two ways of drawing sunspots: projection and direct viewing.
The easiest way to draw sunspots is to project the image of the Sun to the screen. The further the screen, the bigger the image, but also less bright, so one has to find the perfect proportion. For 10 inch telescope, the optimal distance of the screen from the eyepiece is 1–1.5 meter. [8]
When the Sun is projected, there are two ways for drawing sunspots: you can project Sun on the screen, look at it and draw sunspots on the table, but you can also project the Sun on the drawing paper, just mark the position and draw the shape. [9]
One less accurate way to do this is to buy the special filter for blocking the light from the Sun. One can look directly in the telescope in that case and draw the sunspots whilst looking at them.
Sunspots are temporary spots on the Sun's surface that are darker than the surrounding area. They are regions of reduced surface temperature caused by concentrations of magnetic flux that inhibit convection. Sunspots appear within active regions, usually in pairs of opposite magnetic polarity. Their number varies according to the approximately 11-year solar cycle.
David Fabricius was a German pastor who made two major discoveries in the early days of telescopic astronomy, jointly with his eldest son, Johannes Fabricius (1587–1615).
An astronomical object, celestial object, stellar object or heavenly body is a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that exists within the observable universe. In astronomy, the terms object and body are often used interchangeably. However, an astronomical body or celestial body is a single, tightly bound, contiguous entity, while an astronomical or celestial object is a complex, less cohesively bound structure, which may consist of multiple bodies or even other objects with substructures.
The Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO) is an astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson, a 5,710-foot (1,740-meter) peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, northeast of Los Angeles.
Richard Christopher Carrington was an English amateur astronomer whose 1859 astronomical observations demonstrated the existence of solar flares as well as suggesting their electrical influence upon the Earth and its aurorae; and whose 1863 records of sunspot observations revealed the differential rotation of the Sun.
George Ellery Hale was an American astrophysicist, best known for his discovery of magnetic fields in sunspots, and as the leader or key figure in the planning or construction of several world-leading telescopes; namely, the 40-inch refracting telescope at Yerkes Observatory, 60-inch Hale reflecting telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory, 100-inch Hooker reflecting telescope at Mount Wilson, and the 200-inch Hale reflecting telescope at Palomar Observatory. He played a key role in the foundation of the International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research and the National Research Council, and in developing the California Institute of Technology into a leading research university.
Johann Goldsmid, better known by his Latinized name Johann(es) Fabricius, eldest son of David Fabricius (1564–1617), was a Frisian/German astronomer and a modern era discoverer of sunspots in 1611, preceded by Thomas Harriot and followed by Galileo Galilei.
Armagh Observatory is an astronomical research institute in Armagh, Northern Ireland. Around 25 astronomers are based at the observatory, studying stellar astrophysics, the Sun, Solar System astronomy and Earth's climate.
Solar physics is the branch of astrophysics that specializes in the study of the Sun. It intersects with many disciplines of pure physics and astrophysics.
The Dunn Solar Telescope also known as the Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope is a unique vertical-axis solar telescope, in Sunspot, New Mexico located at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico. It is the main telescope at the Sunspot Solar Observatory, operated by New Mexico State University in partnership with the National Solar Observatory through funding by the National Science Foundation, the state of New Mexico and private funds from other partners. The Dunn Solar Telescope specializes in high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy to help astrophysicists worldwide obtain a better understanding of how the Sun affects the Earth. Completed in 1969, it was upgraded with high-order adaptive optics in 2004 and remains a highly versatile astrophysical observatory that serves as an important test platform for developing new instrumentation and technologies. The Dunn Solar Telescope, located in Sunspot, New Mexico, is a vertical-axis solar telescope that specializes in high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy. It was completed in 1969 and received a significant upgrade with high-order adaptive optics in 2004.
A helioscope is an instrument used in observing the Sun and sunspots. The helioscope was first used by Benedetto Castelli (1578-1643) and refined by Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). The method involves projecting an image of the sun onto a white sheet of paper suspended in a darkened room with the use of a telescope.
A solar telescope or a solar observatory is a special-purpose telescope used to observe the Sun. Solar telescopes usually detect light with wavelengths in, or not far outside, the visible spectrum. Obsolete names for Sun telescopes include heliograph and photoheliograph.
The Algonquin Radio Observatory (ARO) is a radio observatory located in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. It opened in 1959 in order to host a number of the National Research Council of Canada's (NRC) ongoing experiments in a more radio-quiet location than Ottawa.
Observatory Robert A. Naef is an astronomical observatory located at Épendes, Canton of Fribourg, Switzerland at 7.13938 degrees east of Greenwich and 46.76236 degrees north latitude. Its parallax constants are : ρ sin φ' = 0.68632 and ρ cos φ' = +0.72501.
The Solar Observing Optical Network (SOON) consists of three U.S. Air Force (USAF) Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) solar observatories. AFWA operates a solar telescope at each site to monitor solar active regions at optical wavelengths. The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) archives histograms of intensity versus area every minute for the active regions. It also archives magnetograms of the magnetic field structure and tachograms of plasma velocities on an irregular schedule.
Solar observation is the scientific endeavor of studying the Sun and its behavior and relation to the Earth and the remainder of the Solar System. Deliberate solar observation began thousands of years ago. That initial era of direct observation gave way to telescopes in the 1600s followed by satellites in the twentieth century.
Mark Welser (1558–1614) was a German banker, politician, and astronomer, who engaged in learned correspondence with European intellectuals of his time. Of particular note is his exchange with Galileo Galilei, regarding sunspots.
Letters on Sunspots was a pamphlet written by Galileo Galilei in 1612 and published in Rome by the Accademia dei Lincei in 1613. In it, Galileo outlined his recent observation of dark spots on the face of the Sun. His claims were significant in undermining the traditional Aristotelian view that the Sun was both unflawed and unmoving. The Letters on Sunspots was a continuation of Sidereus Nuncius, Galileo's first work where he publicly declared that he believed that the Copernican system was correct.
Jean Tarde was Vicar general of Sarlat, famous for his chronicles of the diocese. He was a Frenchman and was an early adopter of Copernican theory. Tarde was born into a semi wealthy family in the bourgeois community in La Roque-Gageac, near Sarlat, France. He received his doctorate of law from the University of Cahors and then went on to the University of Paris to continue his studies. Throughout his younger adult life, he held a number of different religious positions such as canon theologian, and almoner where during his free time he studied various sciences including mathematics, astronomy, physics, and geography. He is most famous for his work with sunspots which he concluded were small satellites of the sun.
The Snow Solar Telescope is a solar telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California. It was originally named the Snow Horizontal Telescope as it uses a coelostat to deflect light from the Sun into a fixed horizontal shed where it can be studied. The telescope was funded by a donation from Helen E. Snow of Chicago in 1903. It was assembled at Yerkes Observatory then transferred to Mt. Wilson in 1905.
