Sunspot Records by Antonio Colla Just After the Dalton Minimum

Abstract

Antonio Colla was a meteorologist and astronomer who made sunspot observations at the Meteorological Observatory of the Parma University (Italy). He carried out his sunspot observations from 1830 to 1843, just after the Dalton Minimum. We have recovered 71 observation days for this observer. Unfortunately, many of these records are qualitative and we could only obtain the number of sunspot groups and/or single sunspots from 25 observations. However, we highlight the importance of these records because Colla is not included in the sunspot group database as an observer and, therefore, neither are his sunspot observations. With regards to the number of groups, the sunspot observations made by Colla are similar to those of several observers of his time. For common observation days, only Stark recorded significantly more groups than Colla. Moreover, we have calculated the sunspot areas and positions from Colla’s sunspot drawings concluding that both areas and positions recorded by this observer seem unreal. Therefore, Colla’s drawings can be interpreted such as sketches showing reliable information on the number of groups but the information on sunspot areas and positions should not be used for scientific purposes.