Stradivari, Violins, Sunspots, and the Maunder Minimum

I mentioned Antonio Stradivari in SolderSmoke 120, but I felt a bit guilty about it, because there wasn't much of a connection to radio. But Nick, KB1SNG, has come to the rescue. Nick sent me this interesting article that discusses POSSIBLE connections between the quality of Stradivari's violins and the sunspot count. Check it out:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/01/0107_040107_violin.html

A recent article in The Economist alerted me to the fact that OM Stradivari was busy in the shack, churning out mechanical audio oscillators well into his 90's. I thought that Stradivari's late start, and his success in his senior years makes him an inspiration for many of us. A quick look at the Strad-Wiki page confirms this: Stradivari didn't really hit his stride until age 54, and did his best work between age 54 and 81.

Carrington Flares, Aurora, Where were you on August 4, 1972?

Greg, KC2DWF, sent me a really interesting story about the work of the English solar astronomer Richard Carrington. He discovered a kind of solar flare (named for him) that comes along every few centuries and could knock us all off the air.

As I was reading the article, I started to think about a childhood event that I think I mentioned in one of the podcasts. I have vivid memories of a summer night in which the skies were filled with really bright colorful lights. The article about Carrington notes that there was a major solar flare (but not of Carrington levels) on August 4, 1972 that caused auroral displays far into the southern part of the USA. The year is a bit later than I thought (I was 13 at that time) but the time of year is correct. And that flare was big enough to have caused really vivid aurora over New York.
The NASA site "Brushfires in the Sky" provides this very helpful list for people, like me, trying to figure out what we saw, and when:

The Aurora Watchers Handbook lists the following "Great Geomagnetic Storms" of the 20th century when auroras were seen much farther south than usual. If you have a childhood memory of aurora borealis, it may have come from one of these storms.

• October 31 - November 1, 1903
• September 25, 1909
• May 13-16, 1921
• April 16, 1938
• February 11, 1958
• July 8, 1958
• August 4, 1972
• December 19, 1980
• March 13-14, 1989

Looks to me like my event was August 4, 1972. Anyone else have memories of this storm?

Here is the article that Greg sent:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/06may_carringtonflare.htm

Big Solar Flare -- End to the Minimum?

From a WIRED article today: "Solar flares rise and fall on an 11-year cycle, and last year marked what scientists thought was the solar minimum. But through the beginning of 2009, the sun stayed unusually quiet. That changed yesterday, when a major sunspot appeared on the backside of the sun, where it was captured by NASA’s STEREO instrument."

The NASA stereo images were nice, but the amazing picture above was taken from a backyard in Buffalo, New York by solar photographer Alan Friedman.

It seems like the effects of this new prominence will be felt here on earth on May 8. Woo Hooo! Maybe my WSPR signal will cross new oceans!