SOLAR ACTIVITY

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20093, 24 November 1930, Page 15

SOLAR ACTIVITY

—♦ — j REVIVAL AT PRESENT. ObiemtioM made at Kelburn on iifeiflajf afternoon revealed the fact ttU theic is at present a temporary "jitit in solar activity. There are fell pottpe of sunspots, numbering 43 i# *Uj now, visible on the sun's disc. Ht I. Thomsen, director of the ieetioa of tho New Zealand Astroiffldttl Sceiety, told a reporter on FriUf ihat observations made by mem|Wl Sf the seetion during the past few hfcd shown that the sun was •Mainly on the decline in activity, iii Wfltdanee with the 11-year sunspot Yesterday's observation, liowthat there was a temporary fig* iotupots present are not what jgpt'lw called large when we consider groups that crossed the sun's lj*™ JTbVeaber, 1929," said Mr Thorns' gfoup, however, of moderate jjlttwions and consisting of 28 spots ffyort passed the central meridian; JB* .da the eastern limb, three new IM* lire made their appearance, fifefe are, altogether, 43 spots on the J» tO-toy, and on the scale adopted 5 ~ e observatory at Zurich for FolfMlative sunspot numbers, the ** te P rcsen ted by the number This number is above the mean Huhiber for the year 1927, in ■p the last soiar maximum occurred. Ifwwo*'? o*'o*' 0 *' no ' inferred from this," « Thomsen continued, "that the •wilier or any other natural phenome--2 be affected by the increased "W Sctivitj, as the sun does not affect f Particular locality, but the whole *• The topographical features of r~- M earth's surface and the general conditions already pre- ' nearly always cancel out a !*•*' efflet. Popular belief generally jgwit f or granted that a sunspot on fo ftS 1 ? eßns bad weather, but there is wanaation or truth for this idea."