

The 315-Year-Old Science Experiment - pmcpinto
http://nautil.us/issue/22/slow/the-315_year_old-science-experiment

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match
Forgive my ignorance, but what mechanism did they use to not damage their
retinas by staring at the sun through a telescope?

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fsk
I thought the way that sunspot counting works is that you point a magnifying
telescope at the sun, and the image projects on the floor. You look at the
image on the floor.

He did have a valid point. For the data to be consistent across a 300+ year
data set, he had to use the same method as his predecessors.

However, you could use technology to augment the manual count. They could use
the same k-factor adjustment they used to compare multiple human counters, and
use the same k-factor adjustment when technology changes.

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wglb
Sadly, they don't mention Ham Radio, which (along with other shortwave users)
is pretty close to obsessed with sunspots. They have a dramatic impact on HF
propagation.

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Aardwolf
> The observation of sunspots predates modern astronomy by at least three
> millennia.

Any idea how they watched those back then? With the naked eye seems too
painful.

