Vanlommel, Petra

Released on 2019-10-28

Abstract: Maybe you have already heard of sunspots. Basically, they're just dark, 'cold' spots on the surface of the Sun. But did you know that observers around the globe have been observing and drawing them by hand for more than 400 years and still continue to do so ? One might wonder why we, in our digital modern era still do it the old fashioned-way, with a pencil and a paper sheet. The answer is continuity. We keep the same method to be able to compare observations from the past with modern observations. This gives one of the longest scientific data archives in the history of science since Galileo started it more than 400 years ago !

Keyword(s): sunspots ; citizen science
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