Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-08-11
TIE gpoTs OF THE sun.

says Professor Isaac S1RTpless, OF Haver-
ford College, speaking, yesterday, in the
observatory Of that noted educational in
stitution, on the annually large number Of
spots now noticeable on the SIMS surface,
said:
At the present time the solar surface is
more than usually spotted. There are fully
sixty spots, large and small, to be readily
seen and counted il telescope with q
power which msgnifies two hundred times
Some of these are quite large. The largest
of them, as the result of hasty measure
ment between the clouds to-day, gave about
IL 900 miles IS the diameter of the umbra,
and nearly 1000 a. the diameter of the Pc
humbra, The diameter of the sun is about
$50, 600 miles, so that il will be seen that
this is no inc0nsiderable portion of the sur.
face. They sre mostly congregated il
groups, and these groups are generally ar.
ranged in lows parallel TO the solar equa.
tor.
The largest spot spoken of above is nearly
circular, and the dark portion is nearly uni
formly dark over its whole extent. The
penumbra seems TO be made up of radial
streamers of alternate light and dark.
Others are not 80 simple in arrangement.
A band of intense brightness, technically
called a bridge" in one case stretches
across the center of the umbra. Some of
the smaller spots are arranged in rows, and
others show evidence of cyclonic or whirl
pool actions.
The sun revolyes on its axis in about
twenty-five days, carrying the spots with
it. Hence spot which appears to-day on
the eastern edge will in about six days be on
the central meridian, and in about twelve
days pase off at the western edge, provided
it lasts long enough. In the past some of
them have been watched through mora
than whole revolution of the sun some
of them come and vanish in a few hours !;
some of them change their appearance, so
that they could not be recognized as the
same. Nothing certain can be predicted
concerning them.
As to what they are there is only one fact
known. They are hollows in the glowing
surface of the SUM- The central umbra is
the deepest portion and the penumbra is
the sloping side of the cavity. The spot
whose dimensions are given above is there
fore a hollow IN the sun so, 600 miles across
at the surface and II 600 at its greatest
depth. How deep it is cannot be known,
but it is not unlikely that it is thousands of
miles.
The first assumption would naturally be
that the umbTa was a portion Of the dark
body Of the sun, showing through the la
minous exterior. But this is untenable,
and the most plausible theory of the sun
spots is that they will indicate the places
where gases from the interior of the sun,
which have been forced up by the gigantic
explosions and cooled in the higher regions,
are again sucked down By some maelstrom
into the body of the sun.
Around a large, dark spot are often seen
traces of these upheavals in bands and
spots of intense brightness, and when these
get to the edge OF the disk they are often
seen to be overlaid with eruptions of gas.
eous and glowing hydrogen. The volcanic
action drives up the matter of the lnmin.
Gus crust of the sun, the lightest portions
the highest, it gradually settles down as it
cools and becomes dark, and finally is
drawn again by some vortex into the depths
of the sun. Whenever there are plenty of
dark spots there are plenty Of bright ones
and plenty of prominences.
Spots then indicate solar activity. Prox-
unity to a spot indicates the region of local
activity. When we come to the effect of
this solar activity upon the earth we reach
8 question which is very fayorite one for
speculation. Of course it is not unlikely
that there is much connection between sun
and earth. 1t is also extremely probable
that electricity has something to do with
these solar outbursts, and electricity can
traverse the space which separates US from
them as easily as gravitation and heat and
light do. There can be but little doubt that
solar spots are coincident with terrestrial
suroras. The agreement, both in general
and In particular, Is very close and too
striking for accident. When a large and
active spot has reached the point on the
sun nearest to us 1.-THE middle of his disk
there is almost always an aurora. Again,
there is coincidence which may be con-
sidered to be proved between sun spots and
magnetic disturbances which interfere with
telegraphy. This also is an agreement
which can hardly be doubted. So that it
may be taken as an observed, but not an
explained, fact that the earth does respond
to solar disturbances, and that meteorolog-
icsl predictions based on the condition of
the sun are not entirely worthless.
But when we come to predicting storms
and cyclones as a result of sun spots we
are hardly on safe grounds There may be
a connection. There is nothing in il
which, on the face of it, is improbable, as
when we attempt to account for the
changes of weather by the phases of the
moon or the positions of the planets. But
it Is safe to ssy that no observations yet
made will justify any one in assuming it
as a reliable ground for prediction. There
are no records to show, with sufficient
degree of distinctness, that solar and ter
-restrial cyclones are coincidens. The years
of maximum sun.spots are not noticeably
the years of plentiful cyclones, taking the
earth over, and there is very little to show
that any individual spot has caused
any individual storm. The proofs may
exist, but they are probably SO hidden un-
der the confused mass of the other factors
of our meteorological conditions that they
have not yet been disentangled. So that
when our Associated Press dispatches prom.
ised us, yesterday, more cyclones as a re-
suit of the present sgitated state of the
sun, some one may find the predictions
verified. but it was none the less rash to
make them.
No other CITY IN the world SAYS T,adoors