THE SUN AND SUN SPOTS MAUNDER 



167 



" leader " and the " trailer," bears a definite relation to the latitude 

 at which it occurs. The "trailer" tends to be further from the 

 equator than the " leader," and " in low latitudes the axes are nearly 

 parallel to the sun's equator; but with increasing latitude the mean 

 inclination increases to a maximum of about 11° " in the region of 

 latitude 30° to 35°. 



To go back in the history nearly 60 years, one of the most notable 

 contributions to the answer to the question "What is a sun?" was 

 supplied by the Redhill Observations of Sunspots made by R. C. 



To illuttratt tilt relative movtrntnti U longitude of Spots 

 in aifftrtnt Solar latitudes In one rotation of tin. Sun.. 

 Fig. 5 



Carrington in the years 1853-1861, in which he redetermined the posi- 

 tion of the sun's axis and the rotation period of the sun. In par- 

 ticular, he showed that each different zone of latitude, north and 

 south, has its own rotation period. The annexed diagram (fig. 5) 

 will roughly illustrate the general effect. It is drawn on the assump- 

 tion that there is a spot in every fifth degree of latitude, and that at 

 a given moment these 17 spots were all observed to be on the central 

 meridian of the sun's apparent disk. If, then, each spot traveled 

 westward with the average speed of apparent motion appropriate to 

 its own particular latitude, then in 27% days the spots would be 

 found in the positions indicated on the curved line. 



