Solar Week - Ask a Question



Come here during Solar Week (next one: March 22-26, 2021) to interact. To post a question, click on your area of interest from the topics below, and then click on the "Ask New Question" button. Or EMAIL or tweet or plant in Answer Garden your question about the Sun or life as a scientist to us -- and watch for it to appear here.  You can also visit our FAQs (frequently asked questions). In between Solar Weeks in October and March, you can view all the archives here.

PrevPrev Go to previous topic
NextNext Go to next topic
Last Post 5/19/2015 1:00 PM by  Mitzi Adams
sunspots
 2 Replies
Sort:
You are not authorized to post a reply.
Author Messages

Anonymous





Posts:


--
5/18/2015 6:41 AM

    kayla l (rxm) how did the chinese study sunspots? I though galileo was the first to study them? thank you very much....

    Tags: sunspots, Chinese

    Dawn Myers



    Basic Member


    Posts:151
    Basic Member


    --
    5/18/2015 12:36 PM
    So according to my internet research Chinese astronomers recording solar activity around 800 BC. And though there are no known Chinese or Korean illustrations of sunspots from that time period astronomers from China and Korea were known to have observed sunspots.

    Mitzi Adams



    Basic Member


    Posts:101
    Basic Member


    --
    5/19/2015 1:00 PM

    Hi Kayla,

    Galileo was one of the first to study sunspots with a telescope; he began a systematic study of them and discussed his findings with Christoph Scheiner, with whom he argued about their nature. Thomas Harriott also studied sunspots in England using thick clouds at sunrise and sunset (as K.D. Leka says...NEVER repeat what Harriott did) as a filter. The Chinese, no doubt, saw sunspots in the same way as Harriott. According to Dr. David Pankenier, an expert on ancient Chinese astronomy, there is a record of sunspots from the Book of Changes that may be from the 1st millennium B.C.E. Other records begin about 165 B.C.E. Modern Chinese in north China have reported sunspots in late spring/early summer at which time there is a lot of dust in the air, making sunspot observations a possibility.

    You are not authorized to post a reply.


    Twitter Feed

    Scientist Leaderboard

    Name # of replies
    Multiverse skin is based on Greytness by Adammer