Related papers: On times and shadows: the observational analemma
We compare spectra of the zonal harmonics of the large-scale magnetic field of the Sun using observation results and solar dynamo models. The main solar activity cycle as recorded in these tracers is a much more complicated phenomenon than…
The observation of the Sun with a pinhole in order to check the first and the second Kepler's law has been realized for high school students. The settling of the experiment in order to minimize the errors of measure has permitted to verify…
Preoccupied with measurement, physics has neglected the need, before anything can be measured, to recognize what it is that is to be measured. The recognition of symbols employs a known physical mechanism. The elemental mechanism-a damped…
The automated detection of solar features is a technique which is relatively underused but if we are to keep up with the flow of data from spacecraft such as the recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory, then such techniques will be…
We present a modern reconstruction of the classical formula, first derived by medieval Arab astronomers, that describes the trajectory of the tip of a gnomon's shadow during the day as a function of latitude, solar declination, and gnomon…
We analysed a selected sample of exoplanets with orbital periods close to 1 year to study the effects of the spectral window on the data, affected by the 1 cycle/year aliasing due to the Earth motion around the Sun. We pointed out a few…
This chapter provides an overview of the magnetic activity of the Sun and stars, discussing its underlying physical origin, manifestations, and fundamental role in exoplanet studies. It begins with a summary of the Sun's magnetic activity…
The tachocline is believed to be the region where the solar dynamo operates. With over a solar cycle's worth of data available from the MDI and GONG instruments, we are in a position to investigate not merely the average structure of the…
This is a historian's view of how modern astronomy data can be used to discuss the shifting historical worldview of Late Antiquity. In this article an attemp is made to construct an approximate model of how the cycles of astronomical…
The Sun's internal structure and dynamics can be studied with helioseismology, which uses the Sun's natural acoustic oscillations to build up a profile of the solar interior. We discuss how solar acoustic oscillations are affected by the…
The concept of a measurement of the yet unevaluated Hannay angle, by means of an Earth-bound satellite, adiabatically driven by the Moon, is shown herein. Numerical estimates are given for the angles, the orbital displacements, the…
Reports from the 2nd and 3rd Century AD attribute the first measurement of the angular size of the Sun to Thales of Miletus, in the 6th Century BC. Cleomedes, also in the 2nd Century AD, described a method to perform the measurement, based…
We applied the method of continuous wavelet-transform to the time-frequency analysis to the sets of observations of relative sunspot numbers, sunspot areas and to 6 Mount Wilson HK-project stars with well-defined magnetic cycles. Wavelet…
This study investigates the potential of the Sagnac Effect for detecting dark matter in the Solar System, particularly within the Sun. Originating from the relative delay and interference of light beams traveling in opposite directions on…
Although the Sun is our closest star by many orders of magnitude and despite having sunspot records stretching back to ancient China, our knowledge of the Sun's magnetic field is far from complete. Indeed, even now, after decades of study,…
The polar magnetic field of the Sun is a manifestation of certain aspects of the dynamo process and is a good precursor for predicting a sunspot cycle before its onset. Although actual synoptic measurements of this field exist only from the…
Progress in astronomy comes from interpreting the signals encoded in the light received from distant objects: the distribution of light over the sky (images), over photon wavelength (spectrum), over polarization angle, and over time…
Solar meridian observations have been used to evaluate the solar activity of the past. Some important examples are the solar meridian observations made at the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna by several astronomers and the observations…
Time use surveys in Denmark, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy and United Kingdom are analyzed to provide start, noon and end times for the main activities of a society: labor (the focus of this preprint), sleeping and eating. Also, the…
This thesis addresses two major problems in the philosophy of physics. The first is how to identify the minimal physical content of a theory; that is, what features of a theory are truly needed to make predictions, and what can be removed…