Paradoxically as it may sound, I find observing the sun these days very exciting. Few sunspots show up – today’s lunch-break observation with the 90mm Maksutov showed 3 groups and 6 spots – and the maximum last year of solar cycle 24 was very weak. It seems to be one of the weakest cycles since regular observations commenced in the mid-18th century, but by no means is it the weakest cycle sunspot-wise.
So even though there are not much action on the solar disc these days, being there to observe this feeble solar activity is very interesting and it feels meaningful to be one of stations of the network of observers reporting data to the international sunspots data centre. On any given day these at the moment, we are about 25 stations reporting observations, so it really feels that one is making a contribution to the centuries-long series of sunspot data.
Sometimes, in monitoring celestial phenomena, non-activity or low activity is also an interesting fact that would never be known had observers not been there to document it.
