They occur when the Moon reaches a point in its orbit around the Earth that lies on the line joining the Earth and Sun. By a remarkable coincidence, the Moon's angular diameter, as seen from the Earth, is almost identical to that of the Sun. Like comets, solar eclipses were taken to be astrological omens of great significance. It is therefore not surprising that such a spectacular event is often mentioned in surviving written records and chronicles of ancient civilizations. It is certainly clear that by the eight century BC, the Babylonians were keeping a systematic record of solar eclipses, and may even have been able to predict them fairly accurately based on numerological rules.
Sunspots are concentrations of strong magnetic fields piercing the solar photosphere.
Because of their possible astrological significances, reports of naked-eye sunspot observations are indeed to be found in many ancient chronicles and court chronologies. Astronomers at the court of the Chinese and Korean emperors made regular notes of sunspots, most less elliptical than the one cited above. It seems, however, that observations were not carried out systematically for their own sake, but instead took place whenever astrological prognostication was demanded by the emperor. The surviving sunspots records, though patchy and incomplete, covers nearly 2000 years and represents by far the most extensive pre-telescopic sunspot record. An essential feature is the place occupied by the Earth at the center of the Universe, with the Sun, planets and sphere of fixed stars revolving about that center, the Sun occupying the fourth sphere.