Maybe miscounting spot numbers?

Science Solar Observing & SID Monitoring
1

Hello,

I have been counting and categorizing sunspots for about 2 months and I just realized that I might not be counting things correctly.

Two images are attached:

  1. Today’s view of 4441 on spaceweatherlive. It shows 7 spots.

  2. According to the drawing in the second image from your solar observing guide, we should really be counting about 12 or so spots and that is what I have been recording.

So how do we deconflict this? Which is correct? Are the individual dark umbral areas within each penumbra counted as one are as separate spots?

Thanks in advance.

4441
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sunspots
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2

As long as you observe consistently, around the same time of day, same optics, etc. your assigned observe constant (k) count correction factor will take everything into account on average. Seeing variations at your site are basically random, For example, if you observe from a constantly poor seeing site then any overall bias from poor seeing, should realize a lower spot count on average, will be accounted for in your counts by your observer factor (k).

The sunspot numbers, say the American SSN, is an average of all contributing observers. So you as a counter should strive for consistency in your observing methods. The key is to observe with the same basic process so your observer constant is stable.

Jim (DEY)

3

Thanks Jim. Yes I understand that part but that wasn’t really the question. I am trying to determine how to accurate count spots and there are some discrepancies that I have found. One of which I outlined in the last post.

Very specifically: Are the individual dark umbral areas within a single penumbra counted as one or as as separate spots?

4

Decide and count how many groups.

Count the total number of individual umbra.

The AAVSO Solar manual is very basic :sun_with_face:. However, Dr. Kristine Larsen gave a webinar a few years ago that seems to cover pretty much everything you are asking and then some.

Have fun!

Jim (DEY)

5

Hey Jim,

That video was helpful. It used several of the images from the beginner’s manual, including the one I referenced above. So it seems I was doing things correctly but I am somewhat confused because the count from SpaceWeatherLive that I have been using as a gold-standard comparison is not correct at least on this day.