My father, John H. Collins, Sr., died recently after a lifetime of raising a family, serving his country, working hard, and being a stargazer. In particular, he loved to watch for sunspots. He counted them, he sketched them, and through his observations, tracked the cycles by which the Sun’s activity occur. For 12 years he made nearly daily sunspot sketches, and on a visit to the American Association of Variable Star Observers office in Cambridge, MA, he met with the late Dr. Janet Mattei and told her of his sketches. She immediately asked him to send them along to share as data points, since our Sun IS a variable star. I think he was amazed that they would want his work.
Daddy’s story doesn’t end with his passing. He instilled a love of stars in me, and I’ve carried that into my books, scripts, and this blog. So, in a sense, when you read my words, they’re for all of you to enjoy — thanks to my Dad’s love of the stars and his enthusiastic support of my explorations.
Thanks Daddy!
Now, I hope you’re out there somewhere, enjoying the cosmos!
My dad is an inveterate sunspot watcher. He once spent 11 years charting sunspots, drawing a solar chart with its sunspots for each day — he’s that into the phenomenon. Of course, he noticed right away that the motions of sunspots follow a path as the Sun rotates, and he charted the solar max and min for that time. He’s not a trained astronomer — he’s an acute observer and his fascination with the Sun and its activity is a marvelous thing.
Some years ago he had the chance to chat with then-director of AAVSO, the late Dr. Janet Mattei. He told her about his 11 years of hand-drawn charts and she was astounded at what he’d done — and remarked at how detailed his drawings were. Daddy and Janet had a long chat about sunspots and observing them and how the Sun is a variable star. I think that visit with Janet remains one of Daddy’s most treasured memories. Well, that, and being able to visit Harvard Observatory for the Cecelia Payne-Gaposchkin centenary that year.
Sunspot 1039 is making its appearance for the new solar cycle. Click to embiggenate.
We just spent a few days in Arizona for the holidays, and to celebrate Daddy’s 80th birthday. Even though he’s hospitalized right now, Daddy’s still going strong for sunspots — so much so that now I always think of them as “Dadspots”.
He’s not dragging the sunscope out so much, but nowadays does his sunspot-spotting via the World Wide Web. He mentioned to me the other day that he’d noticed more sunspots and we talked awhile about the coming rise in solar activity that always accompanies a solar maximum (in the 11-year cycle of solar activity). He’d already noticed the sunspot group 1039, which is part of the new solar cycle 24 that will let us see a steady rise in activity over the next few years. And, I expect Daddy’ll keep his attention focused on sunspots (Dadspots) — as long as he can.
How much activity can we expect? Even though December 2009 sunspot numbers were up, the new solar cycle is predicted to be below average in intensity compared to solar maxima of other years. Even so, the current rise in sunspots and solar activity (if it continues) will be a relief to solar researchers after the long sunspot drought we’ve had over the past couple of years. Everybody’s keeping an eye on the Sun (well, not literally — NEVER look at the Sun directly without proper protection) to see if the rise in spots will continue.
For my part, to honor my dad’s life-long interest in sunspots, I’m renaming this new cycle the “John H. Collins, Sr. Solar Cycle.” Of course, it’s completely unofficial, but if you’d like to use that name in blog posts and tweets, I’m sure he would be honored. Let’s hope for more Dadspots!
