I’ve been actively making Sunspot observations and submitting then to the BAA & AVVSO Solar databases since August 2022.

Most of this data never sees the light of day, so I’ve presented it here with various graphs based on that data, in order that it is easier to digest and understand.

Sun Group and Spot Counts

 This is a count of the number of Groups and Spots over the whole Solar surface at the time & date of the observation.

The ‘R’ or Wolf Number is calculated as follows. Let us say that you count 3 groups consisting of 3 spots in the first group, 8 spots in the second group and 1 spot in the third group. You now have 3 groups, and 12 spots. To record the sunspot number for the day you need to multiply the number of groups by a factor of ten, i.e. 30, and add it to the number of spots recorded i.e. 12, giving a total of 42 which is the sunspot number referred to as ‘R’. 

Sun Group and Spot Counts

 This is a count of Sun spots counted in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres at the time & date of the observation.

‘Q’ Number or Quality

 The Q Number is based on a value assigned to each group visible each day using the Zurich sunspot group classification.  So an A group has the value of 1, a B group 2 etc. with the more complex groups having a higher number.  For each daily observation, these numbers are added together to give a Q value for each day.  Further details can be found in the BAA paper ‘Analysing sunspot activity: A qualitative and quantitative approach’, Frank J. Ventura and Tony Tanti, J. Brit. Astron. Assoc., 98, 282-286 (1988).

number of spots recorded i.e. 12, giving a total of 42 which is the sunspot number referred to as ‘R’. 

Daily Observations