When the Sun Lost its Spots Introduced by John Maddox
For the past thousand years a regular feature of solar activity has been the 11-year sun spot cycle, except for a 70-year period at the end of the 17th century when astronomers reported very little sun spot activity. PROFESSOR JOHN EDDY , an astronomer on the Special Project Staff of the High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, believes that the record indicates a period when solar activity all but stopped, and that this is unlike the regular and repeatable behaviour of the sun which we have come to accept as normal.
Editor MICHAEL BRIGHT