MORE SUNSPOTS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21335, 30 November 1934, Page 10

MORE SUNSPOTS

♦ GREATER ACTIVITY OBSERVED KEEN WATCH TO HE KEPT BY ASTRONOMERS '•SBSS ASSOCIATJO* TF.(.»CJBAM .< WELLINGTON, November 29. A development on the sun, observed yesterday at the Kelbui'n Observatory, is of great astronomical interest. For the last few months, there has been a scarcity of sunspots, and those that were observed were small and feeble. This has been rather disappointing to solar workers, as a period of maximum activity certainly commenced in October, 1933, when sunspots of a high latitude were observed. Mr I. I. Thomson, director of the solar section of the New Zealand Astronomical Society, stated today that for the last two days there had been a small and apparently insignificant sunspot visible. Also there were areas of intense faculas, Which are really patches of highly luminous gas, above the sun's surface. To-day, however, an outburst of activity was clearly indicated. "Although the individual spots are not large and may appear insignificant to the unskilled observer, yet the fact that so many of them have appeared over such a large area of sun within from 15 to 20 hours gives evidence of the sun's present active state," Mr Thomson said. "Although there was only one spot yesterday, there are now three groups containing eight, five, and seven spots respectively. They stretch across the sun's surface for a distance of 252,000 miles. The indications are that still greater activity may be expected, and the sun will be keenly watched by members of the solar section of the New Zealand Astronomical Society, and at the Kclburn Observatory." j