Abstract
William Cranch Bond, director of the Harvard College Observatory in mid-19th century, carried out detailed sunspot observations during the period 1847–1849. We highlight Bond was the observer with the highest daily number of sunspot groups observed in Solar Cycle 9 recording 18 groups on 26 December 1848 according to the current sunspot group database. However, we have detected significant mistakes in these counts due to the use of sunspot position tables instead of solar drawings. Therefore, we have revisited the sunspot observations made by Bond, establishing a new group counting. Our new counts of the sunspot groups from Bond’s drawings indicate that solar activity was previously overestimated. Moreover, after this new counting, Bond would not be the astronomer who recorded the highest daily group number for Solar Cycle 9 but Schmidt with 16 groups on 14 February 1849. We have also indicated the new highest annual group numbers recorded by any observer for the period 1847–1849 in order to correct those values applied in the “brightest star” method, which is used as a rough indicator of the solar activity level. Furthermore, a comparison between Bond’s sunspot records and the sunspot observations made by Schwabe and Wolf is shown. We conclude that the statistics of Wolf and Bond are similar as regards the group count. Additionally, Schwabe was able to observe smaller groups than Bond.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arlt, R., Vaquero, J.M.: 2020, Historical sunspot records. Living Rev. Solar Phys. 17, 1. DOI.
Arlt, R., Leussu, R., Giese, N., Mursula, K., Usoskin, I.G.: 2013, Sunspot positions and sizes for 1825–1867 from the observations by Samuel Heinrich Schwabe. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 433, 3165. DOI.
Baker, D.W.: 1895, Sketch of William Cranch Bond. Pop. Sci. 47, 400.
Bennet, J.: 2020, William Bond & Son, Boston J. Hist. Astron. 51, 125. DOI.
Bond, W.C.: 1849, Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 4, 177.
Bond, W.C.: 1856, Ann. Astron. Obs. Harvard College 1, 31 (Part 1).
Bond, W.C.: 1871, Ann. Astron. Obs. Harv. Coll. 7, 11.
Carrasco, V.M.S., Villalba Álvarez, J., Vaquero, J.M.: 2015, Sunspots during the Maunder Minimum from Machina Coelestis by Hevelius. Solar Phys. 290, 2719. DOI.
Carrasco, V.M.S., Vaquero, J.M., Arlt, R., Gallego, M.C.: 2018, Sunspot observations made by Hallaschka during the Dalton minimum. Solar Phys. 293, 102. DOI.
Carrasco, V.M.S., Vaquero, J.M., Gallego, M.C., Villalba Álvarez, J., Hayakawa, H.: 2019, Two debatable cases for the reconstruction of the solar activity around the Maunder Minimum: Malapert and Derham. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 485, L53. DOI.
Chatzistergos, T., Usoskin, I.G., Kovaltsov, G.A., Krivova, N.A., Solanki, S.K.: 2017, New reconstruction of the sunspot group numbers since 1739 using direct calibration and “backbone” methods. Astron. Astrophys. 602, A69. DOI.
Clette, F., Lefèvre, L.: 2016, The new sunspot number: assembling all corrections. Solar Phys. 291, 2629. DOI.
Clette, F., Svalgaard, L., Vaquero, J.M., Cliver, E.W.: 2014, Revisiting the sunspot number. Space Sci. Rev. 186, 35. DOI. 2014.
Cliver, E.W., Ling, A.G.: 2016, The discontinuity circa 1885 in the group sunspot number. Solar Phys. 291, 2736. DOI.
Denig, W.F., McVaugh, M.R.: 2017, Early American sunspot drawings from the “year without a summer”. Space Weather 15, 857. DOI.
Friedli, T.K.: 2016, Sunspot observations of Rudolf Wolf from 1849–1893. Solar Phys. 291, 2505. DOI.
Hayakawa, H., Besser, B.P., Iju, T., Arlt, R., Uneme, S., Imada, S., Bourdin, P.A., Kraml, A.: 2020, Thaddäus Derfflinger’s sunspot observations during 1802–1824: a primary reference to understand the Dalton Minimum. Astrophys. J. 890, 98. DOI.
Hirshfeld, A.: 2015, William Cranch Bond. Brief life of Harvard’s first astronomer: 1789–1859. Harv. Mag. September–October, 46.
Holden, E.S.: 1897, Memorials of William Cranch Bond and George Phillips Bond, C.A. Murdock and Co, San Francisco.
Hoyt, D.V., Schatten, K.H.: 1998, Group sunspot numbers: a new solar activity reconstruction. Solar Phys. 179, 189. DOI.
Hubble, E.: 1929, A relation between distance and radial velocity among extra–galactic nebulae. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 15, 168. DOI.
Lockwood, M., Owens, M.J., Barnard, L.: 2016, Tests of sunspot number sequences: 4. Discontinuities around 1946 in various sunspot number and sunspot-group-number reconstructions. Solar Phys. 291, 2843. DOI.
Lockwood, M., Owens, M.J., Barnard, L., Usoskin, I.G.: 2016, An assessment of sunspot number data composites over 1845–2014. Astrophys. J. 824, 54. DOI.
Lockyer, W.J.S.: 1897, The two bonds. Nature 57, 171. DOI.
McIntosh, P.S.: 1990, The classification of sunspot groups. Solar Phys. 125, 251. DOI.
Muñoz-Jaramillo, A., Vaquero, J.M.: 2019, Visualization of the challenges and limitations of the long-term sunspot number record. Nat. Astron. 3, 205. DOI.
Neuhäuser, R., Neuhäuser, D.L.: 2016, Sunspot numbers based on historic records in the 1610s: early telescopic observations by Simon Marius and others. Astron. Nachr. 337, 581. DOI.
Owens, B.: 2013, Long-term research: slow science. Nature 495, 300. DOI.
Sánchez-Bajo, F., Vaquero, J.M., Gallego, M.C.: 2010, Solar rotation during the period 1847–1849. Solar Phys. 261, 1. DOI.
Senthamizh Pavai, V., Arlt, R., Dasi-Espuig, M., Krivova, N.A., Solanki, S.K.: 2015, Sunspot areas and tilt angles for solar cycles 7–10. Astron. Astrophys. 584, 73. DOI.
Stephens, C.E.: 1990, Astronomy as public utility–the bond years at Harvard Observatory. J. Hist. Astron. 21, 21. DOI.
Svalgaard, L.: 2010, Updating the historical sunspot record, in SOHO-23: understanding a peculiar solar minimum. Astron. Soc. Pac. Conf. Ser. 428, 297.
Svalgaard, L., Schatten, K.H.: 2016, Reconstruction of the sunspot group number: the backbone method. Solar Phys. 291, 2653. DOI.
Usoskin, I.G.: 2017, A history of solar activity over millennia. Living Rev. Solar Phys. 14, 3. DOI.
Usoskin, I.G., Kovaltsov, G.A., Lockwood, M., Mursula, K., Owens, M., Solanki, S.K.: 2016, A new calibrated sunspot group series since 1749: statistics of active day fractions. Solar Phys. 291, 2685. DOI.
Vaquero, J.M.: 2007, Historical sunspot observations: a review. Adv. Space Res. 40, 929. DOI.
Vaquero, J.M., Svalgaard, L., Carrasco, V.M.S., Clette, F., Lefèvre, L., Gallego, M.C., Arlt, R., Aparicio, A.J.P., Richard, J.-G., Howe, R.: 2016, A revised collection of sunspot group numbers. Solar Phys. 291, 3061. DOI.
Willamo, T., Usoskin, I.G., Kovaltsov, G.A.: 2017, Updated sunspot group number reconstruction for 1749–1996 using the active day fraction method. Astron. Astrophys. 601, A109. DOI.
Wolf, R.: 1879, Annals of the astronomical Observatory of Harvad College. Astron. Mitt. 5, 245.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Economy and Infrastructure Counselling of the Junta of Extremadura through project IB16127 and grants GR18081 (cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund) and by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of the Spanish Government (CGL2017-87917-P). The authors have benefited from the participation in the ISSI workshops led by M.J. Owens and F. Clette on the calibration of the sunspot number.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed to the study conception and design. The first draft of the manuscript was written by V.M.S. Carrasco and all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Carrasco, V.M.S., Gallego, M.C., Arlt, R. et al. Revisiting the Amplitude of Solar Cycle 9: The Case of Sunspot Observations by W.C. Bond. Sol Phys 295, 127 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-020-01696-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-020-01696-y