Letters

The Sun and us

Ed,

I have been studying our Sun and its different phases for the past 50 years or so and have amassed some information which I would like to share with interested parties before my time is up. And, of course, I would welcome the opportunity to learn so much more from other so-inclined people.

As a result, may I invite — through your columns– similarly interested amateurs and others to contact me with the aim of holding informal chats and to swap whatever facts and thoughts may be of interest to all parties concerned. It could all give us some fun and relief from this present pandemic we are having to live through.

Such relaxed meetings could be good for our grey matter let alone the accumulation of more interest in our greater environment, particularly since the start of the current 11-year solar minima cycle late in 2019 with all its social, political, scientific, health and other implications.

For the uninitiated but interested reader, solar minimums and solar maximums are the two extremes of our sun’s 11-year and 400-year activity cycle. Solar minimums were first recorded in 950 BC and the biggest to date was the Maunder Minimum which, uncharacteristically, actually lasted for 70 years from 1645 AD.

Should one or more of your readers be interested in my suggestion to meet, they can contact me by email in oscartamsen4@gmail.com. I welcome anyone interested and fascinated by our big ball in the sky.

Oscar Tamsen, Yamba