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Solar Observations by Angelo Secchi. I. Digitization of Original Documents and Analysis

of Group Numbers over the Period of 1853–1878
I. Ermolli1 , T. Chatzistergos1,2 , F. Giorgi1 , V. M. S. Carrasco3,4 , A. J. P. Aparicio3,4,5 , and I. Chinnici6
1
INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via Frascati 33, I-00078 Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
2
Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
3
Departamento de Física, Universidad de Extremadura, E-06006 Badajoz, Spain
4
Instituto Universitario de Investigación del Agua, Cambio Climático y Sostenibilidad (IACYS), Universidad de Extremadura, E-06006 Badajoz, Spain
5
Earth Remote Sensing Laboratory (EaRSLab) and Institute of Earth Sciences—ICT (Polo de Évora), Instituto de Investigação e Formação Avançada (IIFA),
Universidade de Évora, 7000-671 Évora, Portugal
6
INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento, I-90134 Palermo, Italy
Received 2023 May 7; revised 2023 October 23; accepted 2023 October 25; published 2023 December 4

Abstract
Angelo Secchi, an Italian Jesuit and prominent scientist of the 19th century, and one of the founders of modern
astrophysics, observed the Sun regularly at the Collegio Romano in Rome, Italy, for more than 25 yr. Results from
his observations are reported in articles published in the scientific journals of the time, as well as in drawings and
personal notebooks that are stored in the historical archive of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica Osservatorio
Astronomico di Roma. The latter material, which reports solar observations performed from 1853–1878, includes
original documents from Secchi and from a few of his close collaborators. The above unique material has recently
been digitized for preservation purposes and for allowing the scientific exploitation of data not easily accessible so
far. A total of more than 5400 digital images have been produced. Here we present the archival material and the
new digital data derived from it. We also present results obtained from our primary analysis of the new digital data.
In particular, we produced new measurements of the group number from 1853–1878, which will be available for
future recalibration of the group number series.
Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: Sunspot groups (1651)
Supporting material: machine-readable table, tar.gz file

1. Introduction respectively (Stix 2004; Solanki et al. 2006). The latter appear
as bright prominences when seen protruding far out of the solar
Regular monitoring of the solar surface performed with
disk (Parenti 2014), as well as small-scale jets known as
telescopes has been carried out since the early 17th century
spicules.
when Galileo Galilei, Thomas Harriot, Christoph Scheiner, and
Regular observations have shown that the number of all the
their contemporaries performed the first telescopic sunspot
aforementioned Sun’s features follow the rise and decay of the
observations (e.g., Galilei 1613; Scheiner 1630; Herr 1978;
solar cycle (see, e.g., McIntosh et al. 2021; Carrasco et al.
Neuhäuser & Neuhäuser 2016; Arlt & Vaquero 2020; Carrasco
2022), as it is for the occurrence of Sun’s eruptive events, also
et al. 2020, 2022; Vokhmyanin et al. 2020). These early
linked to the magnetic field, such as flares (Hudson et al. 2014)
observations (Vaquero & Vázquez 2009) revealed that the Sun
and coronal mass ejections (Gopalswamy 2006; Webb &
has sunspots, which move across the solar disk due to the solar
Howard 2012; Hayakawa et al. 2022b). In addition, the solar
rotation. Systematic observations later displayed that the
cycle also characterizes the electromagnetic (e.g., Domingo
number of sunspots has an approximately 11 yr cyclic variation
known as the solar cycle (Schwabe 1843; Karoff et al. 2019). et al. 2009; Ermolli et al. 2013; Yeo et al. 2014; Chatzistergos
Besides, continued monitoring of sunspots showed that their et al. 2023) and particle (e.g., Vainio et al. 2009; Desai &
latitudinal distribution varies along the solar cycle (Maunder Giacalone 2016; Miyake et al. 2019; Sinnhuber & Funke 2020;
1904), with sunspots appearing at progressively lower latitudes Usoskin et al. 2020; Cliver et al. 2022) emissions of the Sun.
The different solar observables linked to the magnetic field
toward the end of a cycle (Hathaway 2015).
Sunspots are the most prominent manifestation of the Sun’s are commonly represented by a variety of indices (Ermolli et al.
magnetic field (Hale 1908; Solanki 2003; Vaquero 2003; 2014), most notably those based on measurements of sunspots’
Hayakawa et al. 2020) in the visible layers of the solar properties (Clette et al. 2023; Usoskin 2023), e.g., the sunspot
atmosphere known as the solar surface or photosphere. There, number, the group number, and the sunspot area (SA). We set
the magnetic field also manifests itself as dark pores and bright out in more detail below how these different indices are linked
faculae, while at greater heights in the solar atmosphere, in, to observed sunspots’ properties and what data are there, since
e.g., the chromosphere, it forms bright plages (Chatzistergos we will use them in the following. Note that in the above
et al. 2022) and network features, and dark filaments, evident at indices, thus also in our study, no distinction is typically made
the radiation of the Hα and Ca II K lines at 656.3 and 393.4 nm, between sunspots and pores.
The sunspot number (SN, according to the nomenclature in
Clette et al. 2015) indicates a weighted estimate of individual
Original content from this work may be used under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further sunspots and sunspot groups observed with a visual inspection
distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the photosphere in the white-light radiation. Compiling a
of the work, journal citation and DOI. series of such measurements was started by Johann Rudolf

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 269:53 (19pp), 2023 December Ermolli et al.

Wolf in the middle of the 19th century in Zürich, and for this with caution for scientific purposes because they are
reason, it is also known as the Zürich or Wolf relative sunspot exaggerated on the basis of a few examples.
number series (see, e.g., Friedli 2016; Clette et al. 2023). It is worth noting that the above sunspot indices are derived
However, it was extended for several solar cycles back in time from an analysis of solar observations carried out across many
by using available data from earlier observations, and years by a large number of observers. These observational data
continued until the present day by the Sunspot Index and comprise drawings, tabulations, and annotations made during
Long-term Solar Observations (SILSO7) program at the Royal visual solar monitoring performed since the invention of the
Observatory of Belgium (Clette et al. 2007, 2014; Clette & telescope, as well as photographs of the solar atmosphere
Lefèvre 2016; Clette et al. 2023). The current SN series goes stored on plates and films since the 1870s, and on digital
back to 1818 with daily cadence, while monthly and annual formats from the 1980s onward. Among all the available data,
values are available back to 1749 and 1700, respectively. the historical observations provide direct evidence of the Sunʼs
The group sunspot number (GN, according to the past and are thus very important for improving our knowledge
nomenclature in Clette et al. 2015 for new group number of the solar processes over long timescales. Besides, historical
series) was introduced by Hoyt & Schatten (1998) as an solar observations store information that find application in
alternative to the sunspot number index, that accounts only for stellar astrophysics and in the studies of the impact of solar
sunspot groups. Significant corrections and updates applied to activity on planetary atmospheres and environments (see, e.g.,
the group counts by Hoyt & Schatten (1998) over the years Hayakawa et al. 2019, 2023). Their importance thus exceeds
(e.g., Vaquero et al. 2016; Clette et al. 2023, and references solar physics. In this light, the last two decades have attested
therein) led to the publication of new GN series (see, e.g., significant novel work aiming to recover and exploit historical
Svalgaard & Schatten 2016; Usoskin et al. 2016; Chatzistergos solar data, see, e.g., Clette et al. (2016) for recent studies of
et al. 2017; Willamo et al. 2017; Usoskin et al. 2021; Clette sunspot data, and Arlt & Vaquero (2020) and Chatzistergos
et al. 2023) that differ also in their extent and cadence. For et al. (2022) for recent reviews on sunspots and plages
example, the group number series by Chatzistergos et al. observations, respectively. In fact, the recovery of yet
(2017) extends back to 1739 with daily values,8 the one by unexplored historical observations allows the provision of data
Usoskin et al. (2021) goes back to 1749 with monthly cadence, for periods with the scarcity of information, as well as advances
while the series by Hoyt & Schatten (1998) and Svalgaard & in the compilation of all the available data (see, e.g., Clette
Schatten (2016) extend back to 1610 with daily and annual et al. 2023). Under this framework, a valuable data set that has
cadence, respectively. However, the scarcity of group number only fragmentary been studied so far is the one realized by
data in several decades before 1750s (see Figure 8 in Clette Angelo Secchi.
et al. (2023) and Hayakawa et al. (2022a) over the most Angelo Secchi (1818–1878), an Italian Jesuit and prominent
problematic period in 1727–1748) along with the various scientist, is considered one of the founders of modern
criticisms that have been raised about the methodologies used astrophysics since the current spectral classification of stars
by Hoyt & Schatten (1998) and Svalgaard & Schatten 2016 relies on his early work on this topic (Hearnshaw 1989;
render the pre-1739 group number values uncertain (Lockwood Chinnici 2019). Besides, Secchi made important contributions
et al. 2016; Usoskin et al. 2016; Clette et al. 2023). toward understanding the phenomena observed on the Sun.
SAs were recorded by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich
Indeed, he was highly interested in solar physics and carried
(RGO; from 1874–1976; Willis et al. 2013), the Kodaikanal
out a program of observations of the solar disk at the Collegio
(from 1904–2017; Jha et al. 2022), and Madrid (from
Romano Observatory in Rome (Italy) for more than 25 yr. The
1914–1986; Aparicio et al. 2014) observatories, and for shorter
results of his observations are recorded in drawings and
periods also by other observatories, e.g., Valencia (from
notebooks that are stored in the historical archive of the Istituto
1920–1928; Carrasco et al. 2014), Coimbra (from
Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) Osservatorio Astronomico di
1929–1941; Carrasco et al. 2018), Pulkovo (from 1932–1991;
Roma (OAR, Monte Porzio Catone, Italy). This material,
Gnevysheva 1968), Kislovodsk (from 1952–2018; Nagovitsyn
hereafter referred to as the Secchi collection, includes drawings
et al. 2017), Rome (from 1958–2020; Cimino & Torelli 1978),
and data from solar observations performed by Secchi and his
and Debrecen (from 1974–2018; Győri et al. 2017). Among
them, the Debrecen Observatory took on the task of continuing close collaborators and assistants. Find more details in the
the RGO series. Besides, Balmaceda et al. (2009) and Mandal following.
et al. (2020) produced two composite series that combine In a digitization program of the INAF heritage archives,
measurements from several sites. The latter series includes almost all documents of the Secchi collection have recently
values of SAs with daily cadence back to 1874. SAs over been digitized for preservation and scientific exploitation. In
earlier periods have also been derived (Arlt & Vaquero 2020), this paper, we describe the archival material and the digital data
but these data are significantly more uncertain and fragmented derived from it. We also present results from our processing of
than the ones available after 1874. Uneme et al. (2022) by the digitized data, in particular the results from our counting of
using a statistical approach showed that the SAs from two the sunspot groups in Secchi’s drawings of the full-disk solar
observers in the early 1800s, during the Dalton minimum, surface.
(Thaddäus Derfflinger and Stephan Prantner) have been grossly This paper is structured as follows. Following this
oversized. In this context, Carrasco et al. (2022) also showed introduction, Section 2 gives a brief biographical note on
that SAs recorded by Cornelis Tevel during the period of Angelo Secchi and an outline of his observations and
1816–1836, including the Dalton minimum, should be used instruments. Section 3 describes the Secchi collection and the
methods applied to digitize it. Section 4 presents the results
7
http://sidc.oma.be/silso/ from our primary analysis of the obtained digital data. A
8
Available at https://www2.mps.mpg.de/projects/sun-climate/data/ch_ summary and main conclusions of this work are given in
gsn_d.dat. Section 5. Table 1 shows the daily values of the group numbers

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 269:53 (19pp), 2023 December Ermolli et al.

Table 1
Daily Values of Group Sunspot Numbers from Our Study

Year Month Day Hour Minute Date JD GN Flag

1853 07 11 11 00 1853.5285 2398046.0 06 d
1853 07 12 00 00 1853.5300 2398046.5 07 d
1853 07 13 09 20 1853.5338 2398047.9 07 d
1853 07 15 00 00 1853.5382 2398049.5 04 d
1853 07 19 00 00 1853.5492 2398053.5 03 d
1853 07 31 00 00 1853.5821 2398065.5 01 d
1853 08 05 00 00 1853.5942 2398070.5 03 d
1857 05 17 10 20 1857.3782 2399451.9 05 d
1857 05 27 00 00 1857.4045 2399461.5 01 d
1857 06 02 09 30 1857.4204 2399467.9 01 d

Notes. Source specifies whether the group sunspot number GN was derived from drawing (d) or annotation (a). Hour 00 means that there is no time information.
(This table is available in its entirety in machine-readable form.)

derived from our study, and information about the annotations Key aspects of Secchi’s advancement of knowledge of the
in the drawings that are relevant to our analysis of the data. Sun is the understanding of a link among the diverse features
observed on the solar disk, and of solar-terrestrial phenomena,
including magnetic disturbances and aurorae on Earth; see, e.g.,
2. Angelo Secchi
Berrilli & Giovannelli (2022), Hayakawa et al. (2019, 2023) for
Due to his rich personality and important results achieved recent studies including Secchi’s observations. Secchi also
from his research work, Secchi’s life and outstanding results observed some total and partial solar eclipses and took early
are described in many sources (for recent reviews, see, e.g., photographs of the totality phases, which in 1860 led to
Altamore & Maffeo 2012; Chinnici 2019, 2020; Chinnici & primary photographic observations of the solar corona (Secchi
Consolmagno 2021). Here we briefly sketch the main aspects 1860). From these observations, it was proven that the corona
of Secchi’s life and research to put the following discussion of and prominences observed during the eclipse are real solar
our study in context. phenomena, not optical illusions or lunar phenomena; find
Angelo Secchi (Reggio Emilia 1818 June 28—Rome 1878 examples in the 18th to the early 19th centuries in Hayakawa
February 26) was a Jesuit of the Collegio Romano (Rome, et al. (2021). In addition, Secchi’s measurements revealed that
Italy) with an excellent background in physics and strong and the radiation emerging close to the limb was roughly half that
novel scientific interests in the fields of astronomy, solar at the Sun’s disk center and let him confirm the presence of the
physics, meteorology, oceanography, geology, and geodesy. solar atmosphere. By using a thermoelectric pile he also
His stunning scientific ability was already clear at an early age. evidenced that sunspots are cooler than other regions of the
From 1844–1850, together with the theological formation, solar disk.
Secchi boosted his scientific interests with sound study, It is worth noting that Secchi used excellent instrumentation
acquaintances with scientists of his time, and two short but for his solar observations (Altamore & Maffeo 2012). In
significant sojourns abroad, as a political refugee. Indeed, particular, he used:
following events related to the Revolutions of 1848, Pope Pius Cauchoix telescope: A chromatic refractor telescope with
IX ordered the Jesuits to leave Italy. Due to this, Secchi, with 16.9 cm diameter aperture and 238 cm focal length. This
other confreres, went into exile (Chinnici 2019) at Stonyhurst telescope, characterized by an exceptional optical quality
College (United Kingdom) and later at Georgetown University (Altamore et al. 2018), was manufactured in 1825 by Robert-
(Washington DC, USA). Once the ban on Jesuits was lifted, he Aglae Cauchoix (Paris, France) for installation on an azimuthal
would return to Rome in 1849. Right after, Secchi was mount, but later adapted by Secchi to an equatorial mount for
appointed director of the Observatory of the Collegio Romano, visual observations of the solar disk. This telescope, which was
a position he retained from 1850 until his death in 1878. also used for early solar photography and stellar spectroscopy,
In his role as director, Secchi began the planning and was equipped with 16 eyepieces having magnification from
construction of the new Observatory of the Collegio Romano, 40–1500.
which was built in 1852 on the rooftop of the St Ignazio church Merz telescope: Equatorial refractor telescope with 24.4 cm
in Rome. At this observatory, Secchi conducted outstanding aperture and 433 cm focal length. This telescope, which was
astrophysical research, while he was also involved in the manufactured in 1854 by Merz (Munich, Germany) was one of
development of novel instrumentation and methods. the best telescopes in the astronomical observatories of the time
Secchi was especially interested in the Sun, which he and one of the largest in Italy (Altamore et al. 2017). Installed
observed on a daily basis for more than 25 yr with the help of in October 1854, it remained in use at the Collegio Romano
some close collaborators and assistants. This activity led to until 1889 (Tacchini 1901).
regular recording of the results from his observations in Three-prism spectroscope. With a combination of two
drawings, in a series of measurements of the properties of the prisms made by Jean Georges Hofmann (Paris, France) and
features observed on the solar disk, and in novel knowledge of one prism made by Merz (Munich, Germany), which was used
the Sun that Secchi summarized in the book Le Soleil (Secchi by Secchi to observe the solar limb (Secchi 1872).
1870). This book underwent two editions and several Grating spectroscope: Dispersing the light through a
translations attesting to it being one of the most successful diffraction grating instead of a prism train. Two diffraction
and beautiful treatises of solar physics of the 19th century. gratings, one in metal and the other in glass, containing 4000

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 269:53 (19pp), 2023 December Ermolli et al.

lines per inch, were made and donated by Lewis M. Rutherfurd

in 1874 to Secchi. These allowed excellent observations of
prominences (Secchi 1875).
Five-prism spectroscope. Improved by Secchi and described
in his treatise on the Sun (Secchi 1875).
As mentioned above, Secchi was well acquainted with
scientists of his time. Throughout his life, he was in contact
with colleagues in Italy and abroad, mostly in Europe, in order
to share knowledge and compare results from simultaneous
observations. Besides, he contributed to set methodologies for
coordinated solar observations. In collaboration with Pietro
Tacchini, an astronomer in Palermo, Secchi contributed to
establishing the Societá degli Spettroscopisti Italiani, a society
of scientists interested in spectroscopy and its applications for
the study of the solar photosphere and chromosphere (Chinnici
2008). The society started in 1872 with the publication of
periodic reports in a new scientific journal called Memorie
della Societá degli Spettroscopisti Italiani. These reports have
significant historical and scientific value, as they record data on
sunspots, faculae, and prominences over several decades
(Riccò 1912). They also form one of the most important
Figure 1. Examples of the cover (left) and spine (right) of one notebook.
collections of solar observations of the time. Information about the location in the INAF OAR archive of the document
Following Secchiʼs death, the Italian government confiscated shown in this figure, as well as of the archival documents shown in the
the Observatory of Collegio Romano and in 1879 May following figures, is given in Section 5 of this paper.
appointed Pietro Tacchini as its director. The monitoring of
the solar atmosphere was continued there until World War I
(Millosevich 1918). However, the instrumentation employed include information for their ultimate attribution to some
by Secchi and his collaborators was gradually decommis- Secchiʼs assistants. Attribution of the drawings to potential
sioned. Indeed, in 1886, the Cauchoix telescope was observers will be the subject of future work after further
disassembled to use its objective with another mount (Altamore investigations.
et al. 2018). Then, in 1889, the Merz telescope was replaced by The unique collection of drawings and notebooks that
a Steinheil–Cavignato refractor and included in the museum resulted from the solar observations performed by Secchi and
collection of the observatory (Altamore et al. 2017). his collaborators, under Secchi’s supervision, is stored at the
Unfortunately, after it was moved in 1923 to the new location INAF OAR historical archive. The material, which is in the
of the museum at the Rome Observatory, the Merz telescope form of notebooks, is included in the series I.1. Osservatorio
was destroyed by a ruinous fire in 1958. On the other hand, the del Collegio Romano. Attività scientifica. A total of 14
objective of the Cauchoix telescope, which remained in use for notebooks of the series contain more than 3900 drawings from
observations at the Rome Observatory until about 1980, has solar observations performed regularly from 1858–1878 across
recently been reassembled into the original tube that had been different time intervals. In particular, there are five notebooks
preserved in the museum collection of the Rome Observatory with drawings covering a full year of observations, two
(Chinnici 2020). notebooks covering less than a year, and seven notebooks
covering a period longer than 1 yr. They are inserted in the
3. Secchi’s Solar Observations subcategory (sottosottosottoserie) marked as I.1.2.1.4.2. Dis-
egni in the above archival fund. At the time of writing of this
Secchi made solar observations at the Collegio Romano in
article, the fund can be accessed by request to the INAF OAR
Rome (41.9 N, 12.48 E) from 1852 until his death in 1878.
Director following standard rules to access historical archives.
From 1858 onward, the observations were performed regularly
The drawings in these notebooks were performed in gray
with the help of Jesuits Paolo Rosa (from 1859–1864), Gaspare
pencil on separate sheets of paper of ≈29 × 30 cm size, by
Stanislao Ferrari (from 1865 onward; clear examples in 1865,
filling most of the sheets. The ones made between 1858
1867–1869, and over 1872–1873), Nazareno Mancini (over the
December and 1873 are collated and stitched together in
years 1866–1870), cleric Giuseppe Lais (from 1871 onward),
hardbound books with rigid covers, while the drawings dating
an unidentified observer with the last name of Tosi (1871), and
after 1874 are stored in unbound folders. The appearance of the
occasionally astronomer Pietro Tacchini during his short visits
notebooks and some stamps therein suggest that the binding of
to the Collegio Romano (1865, 1871, 1873–1874, 1878). Some
loose sheets was presumably coeval.
of them continued the solar observations after Secchi’s death,
Figure 1 shows an example of the covers and spines of the
specifically Ferrari and Lais for a few months, and later
above notebooks, which have a consistent format and are well
Tacchini, with new observers, e.g., Elia Millosevich. Note that
preserved. However, note that the manufacturer of paper sheets
reading annotations in the observations and of coeval
employed for the drawings varied over the years, resulting in
documents allow us to confidently list Secchiʼs assistants
sheets with slightly different colors, sizes, and textures. Due to
who had contributed to the realization of Secchiʼs collection of
small differences in size and coarse stitching of drawings, the
drawings.9 However, unfortunately, only a few drawings
pages in the notebooks are thus irregular. Besides, they appear
yellowish and sometimes stained by ink or other material.
9
See the top left panel of Figure 8 for an example of such annotations. Moreover, the texture of the sheets employed in 1863 includes

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 269:53 (19pp), 2023 December Ermolli et al.

Figure 2. Example of notebook’s page with the solar drawing made on 1872 June 22 at 8:50 local time. It shows the sunspots, pores, and faculae observed on the solar
surface, as well as the chromospheric spicules and prominences seen at the solar limb. In addition to the observed solar features, there are annotations reporting the
date and weather during the observation, identification labels attributed to the observed features, Secchi’s counts of sunspots (n¢ = 16 ), group number (n = 6), and
sunspot area (a = 65 in units of square millimeters), as well as reference lines that allow defining the solar disk orientation and position of solar features. The solar disk
in the drawing has a diameter of about 24.3 cm.

a circular trademark of the manufacturer. Note that information changed over the period covered by the collection, following
about the location in the INAF OAR archive of the document the advancement of Secchi’s knowledge and instrumentation,
shown in Figure 1, as well as of the archival documents shown as well as practice with solar observations; for instance, until
in the following figures, is given in Section 5 of this paper. 1863 Secchi had no spectroscopes. In particular, early
Almost all drawings in these documents report full-disk solar observations record properties of photospheric sunspots and
observations with a disk of about 24.3 cm in diameter. pores, while drawings in 1861–1866 also show facular and
However, there are also drawings with other properties as granular regions, the former observed over the disk as well as
further described in the following. Note that Secchi and close to the Sun’s poles. On the other hand, the drawings made
collaborators made the solar drawings on sheets that they had from 1871–1878 show the photospheric disk features together
placed on a plate near the eyepiece of the telescope. Therefore, with the chromospheric prominences and spicules seen at the
they reproduce the image of the solar disk projected by the solar limb. Secchi performed the latter observations by using
telescope. Besides, it is to be noted that each notebook page the Merz telescope in combination with the spectroscope,
that includes a solar drawing also contains annotations. These placing the spectroscope slit tangent to the edge of the solar
concern the date and time of the observation, and quite often disk image and then moving it parallel and along the solar rim
information on weather conditions and the duration of the to explore the low chromosphere. However, he also used it to
observation. Moreover, there are annotations with comments observe the prominences by aligning the slit perpendicularly to
on the observed features, as well as the calculation of sunspots’ the solar edge.
positions, areas, and numbers. Furthermore, various drawings In addition to the full-disk observations, the above 14
include annotations with information about the number and notebooks also include some special drawings. Figure 3
characteristics of sunspots (sometimes also faculae) on days for displays two examples of these reproducing sketches of solar
which a full-disk drawing does not exist. features observed in detail and at higher magnification with a
Figure 2 shows one example of the pages in the notebooks. change of the eyepiece. The collection contains drawings with
The solar drawing therein reports the results of the observation enlarged visions incorporated within the full-disk observation,
performed on 1872 June 22, and specifically, the sunspots, as well as stand-alone representations of the enlarged region. In
pores, and faculae observed on the solar surface, as well as the particular, there are 103 drawings that just include a detailed
chromospheric spicules and prominences seen at the solar limb. representation of an active region (without the full-disk
Here, it is worth mentioning that the content of the drawings drawing), while 121 drawings incorporated details of active

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 269:53 (19pp), 2023 December Ermolli et al.

drawings, the latter retaining the position of the spots over

the studied period (see, e.g., Figure 5, top panel, documenting
the evolution of sunspot groups observed from 1865 October
5–8). Several drawings include raw outlines of faculae seen
over the disk, around sunspots as well as isolated (see, e.g.,
Figure 6), and there are 11 cases with a series of prominence
drawings observed at different times within a day. Addition-
ally, the collection includes three drawings documenting the
observations of the solar eclipses that occurred on 1860 July
18, 1867 March 6, and 1874 October 11, as well as one
drawing reporting the transit of Mercury over the solar disk
observed on 1868 November 5. Figure 7 shows two examples
of these drawings, lacking information on the solar features
observed on those days.
The drawings often, but unfortunately not always, also
include an indication of the solar equator and poles. Besides,
there are other orientation lines often drawn, reporting, e.g., the
vertical reference, the diurnal motion, the ecliptic, a line
parallel to the celestial equator, and angular positions at the
limb. Although these reference lines often show erasures and
corrections, they allow us to define the orientation of the solar
disk and the position of solar disk features recorded in the
drawings. However, sometimes the reference lines overlap the
observed solar features complicating their identification.
Figures 2–7 make evident that Secchi’s full-disk drawings
were usually schematic and aimed to capture the overall main
properties of the observed solar phenomenon rather than its
details. Moreover, Secchi was not as talented in drawing as he
was in observing and often turned to his assistants to produce
detailed sketches of the observed features (Chinnici 2019).
Consequently, it is not surprising that his drawings of sunspots
are quite raw with respect to sunspot drawings made by his
collaborators and by other observers of the time. In particular,
several drawings made in 1865 July–August and December, in
1869–1871, and from 1875 onward differ from those
performed until that time and most likely are ascribable to
his collaborators. As an example, Figure 8 shows two drawings
recording the observations performed by Secchi and his
collaborator Lais on 1871 May 9. The same set of sunspots
and pores observed on that day were reported in the two
drawings with clearly different styles and levels of detail.
However, Secchi was so attentive to the evolution of the
observed features and to the measured data that we can expect
Figure 3. Examples of drawings with detailed and enlarged views of sunspot
no major inconsistencies in the results of his observations. For
groups made on 1859 August 28 (top) and 1865 February 16 (bottom). The first example, there are annotations on the drawings that link
one is inside the full-disk drawing for that day, while the second one is a stand- features observed on a given day to solar structures observed in
alone sketch. The region of interest in the top image is the one that gave rise to previous or later days, and at different positions on the solar
the Carrington event of 1859 September 1. The same drawing is also shown in disk. In another instance, an annotation in the drawing made on
Hayakawa et al. (2019).
1871 May 1 praises the precision of the drawings by Lais and
Tosi, but also specifies that those by Secchi, although less
regions within the drawing of the full solar disk for that day. precise, contain all the significant data.
Besides, there are two full-disk drawings that have small paper In addition to the notebooks with the solar drawings
strips added to their lower part, where there are reproduced the presented above, the Secchi collection also includes five
position, shape, and size of the prominences and small-scale hardbound volumes marked as I.2.1.4.3. Riduzioni delle
jets observed at the solar limb. Figure 4 shows an example of osservazioni del Sole in the archival inventory. The material
these paper strips, for the observation made on 1871 July 23. is in the form of handwritten notebooks with measurements of
Furthermore, most drawings in the collection report daily several properties of the solar features observed from
observations, but there are a few cases showing the evolution of 1871–1878, except for the years 1873–1874, and the
various solar features observed over several days. This was calculation of quantities related to them. The data are often
done either for enlargements of sunspots (see, e.g., Figure 5, also reported in summary tables in separate registers included
bottom panel, reporting the evolution of a sunspot group in these volumes. These archival documents have different
observed from 1869 April 11–13) or full-disk summary sizes and content with respect to each other and the documents

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 269:53 (19pp), 2023 December Ermolli et al.

Figure 4. Example of a prominence drawing made on 1871 July 23.

Figure 6. Drawing made on 1866 June 22 that shows an enlargement of a

sunspot group clearly outlining the facular regions in the group’s surroundings.

with information on their hemispheric distribution. Calcula-

tions also refer to the rotation period. Another archival
document focuses on measurements of the solar diameter
inventoried as I.1.2.1.4.4. Osservazioni cronografiche del
diametro solare. The content of the notebooks with tabulated
data will be investigated more accurately in future work.
Figure 9 shows an example of pages in the registers of the
collection, reporting the number and area of sunspots and pores
observed in early 1871. It is worth noting that most if not all of
the information in this archival material presumably entered
Secchi’s articles, which appeared in the scientific journals of
the time. Indeed, results from the solar observations performed
by Secchi and his collaborators are published in several
scientific journals, especially the Bullettino metereologico del
Collegio Romano and the Memorie della Societá degli
Spettroscopisti Italiani, mentioned previously. However,
similarly to the solar drawings, the data in the original
notebooks of the Secchi collection have largely been
inaccessible so far. In this respect, it is worth mentioning that
Figure 5. Examples of drawings reporting the evolution of sunspot groups Carrasco et al. (2021) recently presented a machine-readable
from 1865 October 5–8 (top) and from 1869 April 11–13 (bottom).
version of sunspot and prominence data published in the Le
Soleil monography along with results from their preliminary
presented above. The data in the notebooks mostly record analysis of those previously unexplored data. Note that the
results from the reduction by Secchi and his collaborators of the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)10 digital library
solar drawings and research notes covering 1 yr of portal for researchers in astronomy and physics includes 231
observations. The data relate to the number of sunspots, pores, entries as per Angelo Secchi. More than half of these entries
and sunspot groups, SA and umbra, location, and size of concern solar physics and heliophysics.
sunspots observed at the solar surface, as well as data of faculae
10
seen on the disk and of prominences observed at the solar limb, https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 269:53 (19pp), 2023 December Ermolli et al.

panel) and 1858 January 11 (right panel). The drawings were

performed in gray pencil, some of them on separate sheets of
squared paper later added to the notebooks, others directly on
the pages of the notebooks. Note that they differ from the full-
disk drawings described above, being significantly smaller and
more sketchy than the drawings made after 1858 December.
Indeed, the solar disk in these drawings has a diameter of only
about 9 cm and sometimes it is also not fully circular. Note that
an annotation by Secchi in these drawings lets us know that
they were obtained with the finder (Figure 10, left panel).
Figure 11 summarizes information over the period
1850–1878 about the various instruments employed by Secchi
(yellow boxes) for his solar observations, the solar features
reported in the drawings (green boxes), and Secchi’s assistants
(blue boxes), some of which just occasional during short visits,
as, e.g., Tacchini. Note that Secchi was a great experimenter of
instrumental techniques and used different methods during the
same observing day, as testified by, e.g., the drawings of
enlarged regions of the solar disk overplotted to the results of
the full-disk observations, and of the evolution of the observed
features. Nevertheless, archival documents attest that Secchi
started to use the Cauchoix telescope and prism spectroscopes
for solar observations in 1853 and 1863, respectively, and that
he had been equipped with the Merz telescope since 1854.
Figure 12 provides summary information on the number of
drawings and other data available per year in the Secchi
collection. In particular, we show the total number of
drawings (green line), the number of drawings of enlarged
regions (light blue line), the number of drawings with
enlarged regions within a full-disk image (red line), as well
as the number of days per year (annual coverage) with group
counts from either full-disk drawings or annotations (black
line), and from annotations only (yellow line). We further
discuss these data in Section 4.

3.1. Digitization of the Collection

Most of the documents in the Secchi collection have been
digitized for preservation and diffusion of knowledge under the
framework of INAF-funded activities for the valorization of its
artistic and documentary heritage. The work was performed by
an Italian company specializing in the digitization of manu-
scripts and historical books. The methods applied entail that all
Figure 7. Drawings reporting the observation of the transit of Mercury over the pages in the books of the collection and their back when
solar disk on 1868 November 5 (top) and of the solar eclipse that occurred on annotated were digitized, as well as notebooks’ front and back
1867 March 6 (bottom). covers and spines, to preserve their visual aspects to the fullest.
This implies that, e.g., the digital image of a solar drawing
Finally, the Secchi collection also contains six small often includes a small portion of the subsequent drawing in the
handwritten notebooks that include scattered annotations and notebook and of the previous sheet, i.e., the solar drawing is
sparse data from observations performed prior to 1858 and with smaller than the digitized image and framed by something else.
the Cauchoix telescope. These documents, which differ from Besides, since each hardbound notebook collects many paper
the other notebooks in the collection for their smaller size and sheets, in spite of the careful positioning and flattening of the
different content, are inventoried as I.1.2.1.4.1. Osservazioni original document for digitization, sometimes the produced
macchie solari al Cauchoix. Some of these documents include images suffer from small projection effects, especially toward
many empty pages, while annotations in some others suggest the binding side of the notebook. Furthermore, sometimes the
that they were employed by various observers over different sheet employed for the drawings is so thin that the content of
years. It is worth noting that these notebooks mainly record the next page in the notebook is visible through the sheet. This
results from observations of stars, comets, and planets. implies that the next solar drawing in the book appears as a
Nevertheless, they also include 13 full-disk solar drawings faint image on the page under consideration. Note that to avoid
and 15 close-up drawings of sunspots from observations this problem the digitization of each page was performed after
performed in a few days during the years 1853, 1857, and inserting a thick sheet of paper under the processed page, and
1858. Figure 10 shows two examples of these drawings, in this way, the contents of the following pages were hidden.
reporting the observations performed on 1857 May 17 (left We note, however, that this was applied only for the drawings

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 269:53 (19pp), 2023 December Ermolli et al.

Figure 8. Examples of drawings made by Secchi (left) and his close collaborator Lais (right) on 1871 May 9. The top panels show the full-disk drawing made by the
two observers. The lower panels show enlarged areas around group #98 to highlight the different techniques in drawing sunspots by the two observers.

since 1861 July 27. While avoiding ghosts of solar the scan and ex post facto control of the illumination and scale
observations and annotations, the employed method has of the digitized data.
however slightly modified the appearance of the digitized page After the application of standard instrumental compensa-
and decreased the intensity range therein. However, that still tions, each digitized page or element of the notebooks was
could not help with possible annotations or drawings on the returned as a TIFF 400 dots per inch (dpi) image of about
back side of the paper sheet. Indeed, we note that the back sides 5000 × 5000 pixels and about 80 MB. For easy access and a
of the sheets with full-disk drawings sometimes include further quick look, the same images were also stored as compressed
annotations. JPEG 300 dpi and JPEG 150 dpi files of variable sizes ranging
The digitization of the archival documents was performed at from 0.3–6 MB.
the INAF OAR with a SUPRASCAN DIGBOOK 10000 RGB The filenames of the digital data include metadata, namely,
scanner. This device was equipped with a color camera, information on the corresponding location in the INAF library
motorized and controlled remotely, to allow the acquisition of of the archival document and of the date and time of the
42 bit (3 × 14 bit) red, green, and blue images. observation, as they were recorded in the solar drawing. Images
The notebooks were placed on the digitization plate, which derived from the digitization of the notebooks’ front cover and
was either flat or foldable depending on the size and weight of other details, and documents lacking the date of observation are
the book. The digitized documents were illuminated by using stored with the filename format describing only the archival
an LED cold light. corresponding location.
Reference standards were acquired daily by using the Golden The processing steps applied to the digital data do not
Thread Target manufactured by Image Science Associates and include rotation to compensate for small misalignment of the
the Kodak Q-14, CAT 1527662 system to check the setting of document with respect to the digitization floor.

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 269:53 (19pp), 2023 December Ermolli et al.

Figure 9. Example of pages in the handwritten notebooks with measurements of properties of the observed solar features and calculation of quantities related to them.
This example refers to pores and sunspot data recorded in early 1871. The tabulated values refer to the date of the observation (January 5, 8, 10, 11; column 1);
identification number of the observed sunspot (column 2); SA (umbral, penumbral, and total area given in square millimeters; columns 3–5); total SA daily value
(column 6); number of observed pores (column 7); annotations (column 8).

Figure 10. Examples of drawings made prior to 1858 December, reporting the results of the solar observation performed on 1857 May 17 (left) and 1858 January 11
(right).

Note that all the documents described in the previous However, the few solar drawings included in those notebooks
section were digitized with the methods and setting described were photographed with a digital Nikon camera and natural
above, except for the six small notebooks, which include light, producing images of about 6000 × 4000 pixels stored as
sparse data from observations of various types, due to their compressed JPEG 300 dpi files for the analysis described in
different format and constraints on the digitization work. the following.

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 269:53 (19pp), 2023 December Ermolli et al.

Figure 11. Infographic summarizing information about the instruments employed by Secchi (yellow boxes), the solar features reported in the drawings (green boxes),
and Secchi’s assistants (blue boxes) over the period of 1850–1878. Find more details in Section 3.

Figure 12. Number of solar full-disk observations per year in the collection. Number of days per year with group counts (either from full-disk drawings or annotations;
black), number of days per year with information on group counts in annotations (yellow), total number of drawings (dashed green), number of drawings of enlarged
regions (dashed light blue), and number of images that included enlarged regions within a full-disk drawing (red). The days with information on group counts are also
expressed as the fraction of days within a year as shown in the right y-axis.

4. Analysis of the Digital Data are those made by Secchi and his collaborators, under his
supervision, until Secchi’s death in 1878 February, and those
It is worth noting that Secchi did mark sunspot groups in
collected by Secchi’s collaborators until the end of 1878, i.e.,
many drawings of the collection, while summary tables of
slightly before Tacchini was appointed as the new director of
various properties of sunspot groups, faculae, and prominences the Collegio Romano Observatory.
were also compiled as part of the collection. However, this
information only exists for a few years in tabulated form.
Besides, many drawings did not include any delineation among 4.1. Methods
the groups. Furthermore, the grouping conventions have We have developed a set of codes to derive accurate group
changed over time after Secchi’s observations. Due to these counts from the new digital data. In particular, for our analysis,
reasons, a full and accurate recounting of sunspot groups on the we first converted the images obtained from the digitization
available drawings based on modern morphological sunspot work to Flexible Image Transport System (FITS; Wells et al.
group classification (McIntosh 1990) is essential in order to 1981) file format. On these images, we identified the solar limb
exploit all the information about sunspot groups included in the as an ellipse, following Chatzistergos et al. (2020a, 2020b) to
Secchi collection. In the following sections, we describe our account for potential distortions introduced during the
work to recount sunspot groups from the solar drawings made digitization of the drawing. The information on the semimajor
from 1853–1878. Note that the drawings analyzed in our study and -minor axes, along with the ellipse angle were stored in the

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 269:53 (19pp), 2023 December Ermolli et al.

used the majority of the available drawings, but we had to

ignore some of them. The drawings left out from our study
comprise close-ups of sunspots, drawings that did not include
information on sunspots (e.g., Mercury’s passage or eclipse
observations), but also drawings with annotations reporting
poor weather conditions and incomplete sunspot information
(e.g., drawings made on 1870 May 21 and 25). Nevertheless, in
order to provide a group number series from Secchi’s
observations as complete as possible we also incorporated
various information on sunspot groups from annotations on the
sides of solar drawings. Such annotations provide information
for the group counts for days for which there is no full-disk
drawing of the Sun. The majority of these annotations refer to
spotless days for which the observer deemed unnecessary to
make an empty drawing. However, we note that plenty of
empty drawings signifying spotless days also exist in the
Secchi collection. In particular, there are 128 spotless days
mentioned in the notebooks without a drawing. Besides, there
are eight drawings of close-ups of sunspot groups for which the
annotations imply that they are the only groups visible on the
solar disk, and thus can still be used to count groups.
Furthermore, there are 41 days for which there are comments
that either there was nothing new on the disk or explicitly
mentioning the disappearance of specific groups. For these
Figure 13. Example of a mask derived by recounting sunspot groups in
cases we used our counting of the referred date, however, we
Secchi’s drawing of 1870 June 30. The outermost green circle marks the solar checked whether the appearance of the groups on the described
disk, while each group is marked with a colored circle. period would be feasible when taking into account the solar
differential rotation. There were seven cases for which we
found groups that due to differential rotation should not be
FITS file header. Then we identified the sunspot groups on the visible on the corresponding dates from the annotations. For
images manually with a routine that allowed the user to select instance, on the drawing made on 1868 August 2, it is
the groups with two mouse clicks in the image per group, the mentioned that the two groups observed on that day were also
first click providing information on the approximate center of visible in the following days, and specifically from August 3–6.
the group and the second one on the radius of the group. For However, we noticed that, due to the proximity of one group to
each group we maintained this information, allowing us to the limb, it should have disappeared after August 4. The
produce masks of the available groups on the solar disk. The annotation in the drawing may thus imply that a new group had
results derived from the group identification were tested and appeared on the disk together with the disappearance of the one
verified through independent measurements of subsets of the close to the limb, but due to the lack of any evidence of the
data made by four authors of this study. We show in Figure 13 former, this remains rather speculative. To be on the safe side,
an example of the masks derived from the image processing. we decided to ignore such ambiguous cases from our group
Note that the produced mask only includes the part of the counts. For completeness, we list all of these cases as a separate
analyzed image with information relevant to group group in the Excel table summarizing information on
identification. annotations relevant to our study that is made available in the
It is worth mentioning that a semiautomatic processing of the data.tar.gz package.
new digital data was also tested. The algorithm developed for
this purpose made use of the information on the solar disk and
4.2. Sunspot Group Numbers
identified dark regions based on an intensity threshold, which
was set relative to the empty part of the drawing. Figure 14 shows the daily (black circles) and annual (red
Morphological operators were applied to expand the regions solid line) series of the group numbers from our analysis of the
and close potential open loops. Supervision was needed at this drawings in the Secchi collection, which record results from
point to ascertain that the groups were correctly selected. solar observations performed from 1853 to 1878. This period
Unfortunately, the variations of the drawings over time as well includes the descending phase of solar cycle (SC) 9, and the
as the various markings therein rendered the performance of entire SC 10 and SC 11. Also shown in Figure 14 are the
this approach to be highly variable and requiring extensive annual mean values of SN (dashed light blue) and the group
supervision. In particular, the developed algorithm resulted in number series by Chatzistergos et al. (2017). We chose to show
working satisfactorily only on the drawings lacking reference the group number series by Chatzistergos (2017) because it has
lines, enlargement of the drawings of the active region, and daily values and is favored by various tests (Clette et al. 2023).
inscriptions within the solar disk, which represent a minority of We did not consider the other group number series with daily
the analyzed data. Therefore the tested approach was used only values, the one by Hoyt & Schatten (1998), because of the
for a small sample of the drawings and for preliminary various criticisms of its cross-calibration approach (Lockwood
analyses. Note that the data presented in the following derive et al. 2016; Usoskin et al. 2016; Clette et al. 2023), as well as
from a consistent manual identification of sunspot groups on all its reliance on outdated sunspot data, which have undergone
the available drawings. We also noticed that for our analysis we numerous corrections and revisions since then (Vaquero et al.

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 269:53 (19pp), 2023 December Ermolli et al.

Figure 14. Group numbers derived from the drawings of the Secchi collection in this study (daily counts are shown in gray and annual mean values in red). Also
shown are the annual values of the group number series by Chatzistergos et al. (2017, solid green) and SN (the values are given in the right axis; dashed light blue) as
well as the raw group counts of Secchi (dashed yellow) from the Vaquero et al. (2016) database. The vertical dashed black line separates the sporadic data prior to
1858 December and the regular ones afterward. The numbers at the lower part of the figure denote the conventional solar cycle numbering.

Table 2 based on the daily values of group numbers derived from our
Annual Mean of the Group Numbers Derived from This Study and Number of study. The latter are provided in Table 1. We note that there
Days (Ndays), Number of Drawings (Ndraw), and Number of Annotations (Nanno) are no drawings in the collection for the years 1854–1856, and
Analyzed per Year
that those available for the years 1853, 1857, and 1858 are just
Year GN Ndays Ndraw Nanno a few. This can affect the annual values derived for those
1853 3.8 7 7 0 years. We also note that the lack of solar drawings for the
1857 2.0 4 4 0 years 1854–1856 coincides with a period of Secchi’s regular
1858 4.9 16 16 0 observations of astronomical objects other than the Sun.
1859 7.8 161 162 0 For our study we have checked all the relevant notebooks of
1860 6.9 121 127 0 that period in the INAF OAR archive, not necessarily
1861 6.3 124 128 0 referring to solar observations, but we could not locate any
1862 4.5 49 49 0
more solar drawings. Considering the fact that the few solar
1863 3.3 129 129 0
1864 3.2 106 109 0
drawings we found for the years prior to 1858 were in
1865 1.7 189 194 10 notebooks with a title referring to the Sun, however, these
1866 1.4 271 275 38 notebooks comprise mostly observations of other stars,
1867 1.1 112 112 16 planets, and comets, we suspect that it is very likely that
1868 2.7 224 230 36 there are no more potentially lost or destroyed solar drawings
1869 5.6 175 178 32 by Secchi for that period. However, we cannot conclusively
1870 9.8 156 158 5 exclude the possibility that there might still be more drawings
1871 8.0 267 293 2 and data from Secchi’s solar observations for years prior to
1872 6.7 292 298 0
1858 yet to be recovered.
1873 4.9 306 314 0
1874 3.2 266 268 1 Figure 14 also compares the annual series of the group
1875 1.6 234 236 4 numbers derived from our study to the annual series of group
1876 1.0 219 220 7 numbers attributed to Secchi in the literature. Indeed, Secchi’s
1877 0.8 233 233 13 sunspot observations were previously analyzed by Hoyt &
1878 0.4 199 200 13 Schatten (1998), and the corresponding records were later
included in the database of raw group counts compiled by
Vaquero et al. (2016).11 This database also includes records of
2016). According to the SILSO database, the minimum group numbers from other contemporary scientists of Secchi,
(maximum) of SC 10 and SC 11 were on 1855 December such as Johann Rudolf Wolf and Julius Schmidt, as well as
(1860 February) and 1867 March (1870 August), respectively. from some of Secchi’s collaborators and assistants, specifically
We find our group numbers from Secchi’s drawings to follow Pietro Tacchini in Palermo and Gaspare Stanislao Ferrari
very closely the variations in the SN over cycles 10 and 11. On in Rome.
the other hand, compared to the group number series by Figure 14 shows that the values of group numbers derived
Chatzistergos et al. (2017) we find our group numbers from from our study of Secchi’s observations cover a significantly
Secchi’s drawings to be consistently lower at all times except longer period than those previously available in the literature.
the maximum of SC 11. Besides, for an interval of about 2 yr in the overlapping period
Table 2 lists the annual mean values of group numbers of the two series, from 1871–1873, the values from our study
derived from our analysis of Secchi’s drawings. Note that
11
these values were obtained from monthly mean assessments http://haso.unex.es/haso/index.php/on-line-archive/data/

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Figure 15. Comparison of the number of days per year with information on group counts in the Secchi collection (black) and those from Secchi (red) and Ferrari
(green) in the Vaquero et al. (2016) database.

Figure 16. Comparison between group numbers derived from this study and those in the Vaquero et al. (2016) database. Shown are probability distribution matrices
following Chatzistergos et al. (2017). The PMF matrices are color coded with dark blue for a probability of 1 and white of 0. For each column, the mean group count is
marked with a circle (red when the column has data for more than 20 days and black otherwise) also giving the asymmetric 1σ intervals. The histogram shows the
number of days populating each column. The orange and purple curves are linear and exponential fits following Chatzistergos et al. (2017) to the mean values of the
distributions. Within the panel, also listed is the the solar cycle for which there is overlap between the counts of the two compared series, as well as the total number of
overlapping days vs. the total number of days for the solar cycle along with the slope of the linear fit. The black-dotted line has a slope of unity.

are larger than those reported for Secchi’s observations in the However, we find 35 days (extra days, hereafter) for which
Vaquero et al. (2016) database. there is a record of observation by Secchi in the database by
We note that our primary analysis of the digitized drawings Vaquero et al. (2016), but we could not find either a drawing or
increases considerably the amount of available group data from annotation referring to those days. We note that Secchi’s data
Secchi’s solar observations. For clarity, we compare in in the database by Vaquero et al. (2016) derive from the data
Figure 15 the number of days per year with information on set compiled by Hoyt & Schatten (1998) using measurements
group counts as derived from our analysis of the drawings in published in the literature (Secchi 1859; Wolf 1865, 1873,
the Secchi collection (black) and those from Secchi (red) and 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1879), which refer to data in the
Ferrari (green) existing in the database compiled by Vaquero volumes of the Secchi collection. We have consulted Secchi’s
et al. (2016). Figure 15 makes clear that the digitization of the documents and found that they actually include data for the
Secchi collection and our primary work on it have remarkably extra days. We can therefore hypothesize that the data for those
expanded the data available from Secchi’s observations. This is days derive from observations not reported in drawings because
particularly important because it allows future cross-calibra- of lack of time or other reasons, or from drawings or
tions of group numbers to make use of Secchi’s data for periods annotations that were lost or archived elsewhere, or potentially
prior to 1871 and for most of 1872, which were missing before. even from other observers. Indeed, we note that all the extra

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Figure 17. Comparison between group numbers derived from our study and by Secchi and other observers as reported in the database compiled by Vaquero et al.
(2016). In particular, we compare the Secchi records as recounted in our study (left column) and the Secchi records in the Vaquero et al. (2016) database (right
column) to the data by Tacchini (fist row), Schmidt (second row), and Wolf (third row). Shown are probability distribution matrices following Chatzistergos et al.
(2017). See Section 4.2 and the caption of Figure 16 for more details.

days are in the years 1871–1877, i.e., when Secchi and observations for the year 1866 and data for the year 1878 that
Tacchini were used to share information on their observations. seem to coincide in number with the ones analyzed in our
For consistency, we did not add the group counts of the extra study.
days in the Vaquero et al. (2016) database to the results Looking more closely into the differences among the diverse
obtained from our study of the drawings because the origin of data sets, in Figure 16 we show the daily values of group
the former data is other than the drawings and is actually numbers derived from our analysis to those attributed to Secchi
unknown to us at present. Besides, they derive from the in the database compiled by Vaquero et al. (2016). In
application of the group classification adopted by Secchi, particular, following Chatzistergos et al. (2017), we show the
which likely differs from the one used in our counts. Planned probability mass function (PMF)12 matrix for the values from
future work includes digitization and analysis of the tables of our study as a function of the values in the database used as the
measurements compiled in the volumes of the Secchi reference. Only values in the two series relating to the same
collection. This will allow us to further investigate the origin days are considered, and sorted in bins of 1 unit. The resulting
and consistency of the data attributed to Secchi in the literature. matrix is color coded with dark blue for a probability of 1 and
Finally, we note that the group data over the period analyzed in
our study attributed to Ferrari in the database by Vaquero et al.
(2016) are limited to the years 1866 and 1878, with very few 12
Previously referred to as a probability distribution function.

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Table 3 effect of different counting of Secchi’s data appears to be

Documents of the Secchi Collection in the INAF OAR Archive described well with a linear relation, in contrast to the nonlinear
Archive effect of different observer acuities due to different telescope
Unit Position Document magnification reported by Usoskin et al. (2016) and
Chatzistergos (2017).
1 B12 Macchie solari al Cauchoix—studi; dall’anno 1853
all’anno 1854
As mentioned above, the reference database also includes
2 B12 Macchie solari. Annotazioni diverse. Anno 1858 data of group numbers attributed to some collaborators of
3 B12 Registro giornaliero delle macchie solari osservate al Secchi and scientists of his time. In Figure 17, we compare the
Cauchoix con il metodo del padre Ferrari records of Tacchini, Schmidt, and Wolf extracted from the
4 B12 Macchie solari al Cauchoix dal 1 agosto 1865 reference database to the records from our study of Secchi’s
all’anno 1869 drawings and those for Secchi in the database. Here again, we
5 B12 Macchie solari. Dal 18 ottobre 1870 al 30 consider daily values of group numbers and PMF matrices for
maggio 1871 the values from our study as a function of the values in the
6 B13 Macchie solari, 16 decembre 1858-30 settem- reference database for the compared series.
bre 1859 Figure 17 shows that our recounting of group numbers from
7 B13 Macchie solari. 1 ottobre 1859-6 giugno 1861
Secchi’s drawings resulted in a slightly closer agreement with
8 B14 Macchie solari. 8 giugno 1861-29 giugno 1864
9 B14 Macchie solari. 5 luglio 1864-18 decembre 1865
those reported for Tacchini and Schmidt in the Vaquero et al.
10 B15 Macchie solari. Anno 1866 (2016) database than obtained by considering the same series
11 B16 Macchie solari. Anno 1867–1868 and the Secchi data set in the database. However, there is an
12 B17 Macchie solari. Anno 1870–1869 increased disagreement with Wolf’s records. Differences
13 B18 Disegni proiezioni delle macchie solari. Anno 1871 between our group number counts and those referred to Secchi
14 B19 Disegni proiezioni delle macchie solari. Anno 1872 in the Vaquero et al. (2016) database likely depend on different
15 B20 Disegni proiezioni macchie solari. Anno 1873 methodologies to define sunspot groups applied in our study
16 B21 Disegni proiezioni delle macchie solari. Anno and at the time. In addition to the above reason, the diverse
1874–1875 values in our counts and those referred to Tacchini and other
17 B22 Disegni proiezioni delle macchie solari. Anno observers in the reference database likely also depend on the
1875–1876
different instruments or weather conditions during their
18 B23 Disegni proiezioni delle macchie solari. Anno
1876–1877
observations (see Usoskin et al. 2016; Clette et al. 2023).
19 B24 Disegni proiezioni delle macchie solari. Anno Finally, we note that the annotations in the drawings allow us
1877–1879 to attribute some of them to four different observers in addition
20 B33 Riduzione delle osservazioni del Sole. Anno 1871 to Secchi. However, the evolution of the drawings and the
21 B33 Riduzione delle osservazioni del Sole. Anno 1875 richness of their details make it difficult to classify the
22 B33 Riduzione delle osservazioni del Sole. Anno 1876 documents depending on the potential author. We defer this
23 B34 Riduzione delle osservazioni del Sole. Anno 1877 task to future work, since it requires knowledge and expertise
24 B34 Riduzione delle osservazioni del Sole. Anno 1878 on handwritten documents not available at the time of this
25 B34 Osservazioni cronografiche del diametro solare study.
26 B38 Sole. Tavole 1871–1872
27 B43 Osservazioni all’Equatoriale. Dal 23 maggio 1851 al
26 giugno 1851 5. Summary and Conclusions
28 B44 Osservazioni all’Equatoriale. Dal 25 giugno 1860 al
13 maggio 1861 In this study, we have presented the collection of solar
drawings and notebooks made by Angelo Secchi, a Jesuit and
prominent scientist of the 19th century, from solar observations
white of 0. For each column, the mean group count is marked performed with excellent instrumentation at the Collegio
with a circle (red for those in which the column has data for Romano in Rome. The collection, which is stored in the
more than 20 days and black otherwise) also giving the historical archive of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
asymmetric 1σ intervals. The histogram shows the number of Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, includes documents
days populating each column. The orange and purple curves produced by Secchi and a few of his close collaborators and
are linear and exponential fits following Chatzistergos et al. assistants from 1853–1878. Note that, as to the knowledge of
(2017) to the mean values of the distributions. Within the the authors, some of the drawings in the collection were
panel, also listed is the the solar cycle for which there is overlap reproduced and published, specifically those relevant to the
between the counts of the two compared series, specifically SC observation of prominences from 1871 onward that were
11, as well as the total number of overlapping days versus the reported in the volumes of, e.g., Memorie della Società degli
total number of days for SC 11 along with the slope of the Spettroscopisti Italiani. Besides, data derived from the full-disk
linear fit. It is worth noting that the overlapping days cover observations were published in, e.g., Le Soleil and other
only about 33% of SC 11, while our reanalysis of Secchi’s data treatises listed in the bibliography of the present paper, but
provides group counts for 59% of the days in SC 11 as well as most of Secchi’s solar observations drawings and notebooks
27% of SC 10. Overall, Figure 16 shows that our recounting of just remained archived at the Collegio Romano Observatory.
group numbers from Secchi’s drawings resulted in slightly Analysis of close matching between archival material and
larger values compared to those previously reported in the published documents will be the subject of future work.
Vaquero et al. (2016) database, as also shown in Figure 16. We Historical solar observations are a direct key to knowing the
note that the values in the compared series differ from smaller Sun’s past. They provide valuable information about the
to larger counts, hinting at different counting methods applied dynamo, activity, and variability of the Sun (Pevtsov et al.
to derive the values in the two series. We also note that the 2019). Over recent years, new science drivers and the

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 269:53 (19pp), 2023 December Ermolli et al.

Table 4
Position in the INAF OAR Archive of the Historical Documents Shown in Figures 1–10 and Filename of the Corresponding Digital Images

Figure Archive Position Image Filename

1 B13F072 INAFRM_10131_B13F072_0001.jpg
2 B19F080 INAFRM_10139_B19F080_0147_18720622-0850.jpg
3 top B13F072 INAFRM_10131_B13F072_0147_18590828-1000.jpg
3 bottom B15F076 INAFRM_10135_B15F076_0042_18660216-1500.jpg
4 B18F079 INAFRM_10138_B18F079_0172.jpg
5 top B14F075 INAFRM_10134_B14F075_0247_18651005-1116.jpg
5 bottom B17F078 INAFRM_10137_B17F078_0052_18690411-xxxx.jpg
6 B15F076 INAFRM_10135_B15F076_0145_18660622-0913.jpg
7 top B16F077 INAFRM_10136_B16F077_0275_18681105-1030.jpg
7 bottom B16F077 INAFRM_10136_B16F077_0012_18670306-1000.jpg
8 left B18F079 INAFRM_10138_B18F079_0099_18710509-0945.jpg
8 right B18F079 INAFRM_10138_B18F079_0077_18710509-0945.jpg
9 B33F094 INAFRM_10154_B33F094_0148_18710105-18710111.jpg
10 left B43F156 INAFRM_XXXXX_B43F157_XXXX_18570517-1020.jpg
10 right B43F157 INAFRM_XXXXX_B43F157_XXXX_18580111-0930.jpg

availability of new digitizing and computing resources have such as individual sunspot numbers or characteristics of faculae
favored the digitization of several series of historical solar and prominences. For example, a complete recalibration of a
observations, as are, e.g., collections of drawings and sunspot number series is not possible at the moment because a
annotations from visual observations made in the pre- large part of the historical sunspot data from various observers
photographic period (Arlt & Vaquero 2020), and of a few required for this task is still waiting for digitization and their
archives of solar photographic observations (Chatzistergos availability in digital form (Clette et al. 2023). We also note
et al. 2022). Recently, machine-readable versions of data that ongoing work shall soon lead to the derivation of accurate
published in historical books have also been produced single sunspot number counts and SA values from Secchiʼs
(Carrasco et al. 2021). drawings. However, this is a rather difficult task that requires
The digitization of historical observations, in addition to special caution due to the sketchy nature of Secchi’s
providing digital versions of the original archival material, has observations and the changes in their content over the years
also allowed the analysis and generation of new measurements (see Section 3). When derived, these data will be useful for
of sunspots and other solar disk features observed in the past. future recalibrations of the new sunspot number series (Clette
Under this framework, the digitization of the collection of et al. 2023; Pevtsov et al. 2023). Moreover, future work will
drawings and notebooks from the solar observations performed also study the chromospheric features reported in Secchi’s solar
by Angelo Secchi presented in this study is especially observations, in order to extend back the data available for
important. In fact, it favors the preservation and exploitation those features and fully exploit the rich potential of the newly
of the historical data recorded in those archival documents, digitized series of drawings and notes of the Secchi collection.
which were previously largely inaccessible. Besides, it adds Finally, the archival material presented in this study is
new data to a limited number of catalogs of solar observations available online at Internet Culturale,13 which is the portal of
in the 19th century (Lefevre & Clette 2014). This will help digital collections of Italian libraries by Istituto Centrale per il
inter-calibrate the series from individual records of the time and Catalogo Unico delle Biblioteche Italiane e per le Informazioni
identify inconsistencies contained in previously published Bibliografiche of Ministero della Cultura in Italy. We note that,
series of, e.g., sunspots’ properties (Muñoz-Jaramillo & at the time of writing of this article accessing the data through
Vaquero 2019). the Internet Culturale portal may be slightly challenging due to
In this study, we have presented the results derived from our the lack of an English version of the portal. However, we note
primary analysis of the new data derived from the digitization that it is straightforward to locate the observations in the
of Secchi’s solar observations. This analysis recounted the website’s database with a simple search based on the
information stored in Table 3 or by date (since the data are
number of groups from Secchi’s solar drawings over
stored there based on the date of the observation). We also note
1853–1878. The new series of group numbers derived from
that both the original observations and newly produced digital
our study extends significantly the previously available records
images derived from them are accessible by request to the
for group data attributed to Secchi in the literature, by
INAF OAR director. Finally, we will aim to make the same
increasing the group data available over the 19th century. This data also accessible through the INAF OAR portal in the future,
has the potential of improving the cross-calibration of records provided that their origin and derivation as specified in the
from different sources and thus significantly improving our present manuscript are properly acknowledged. More details
knowledge of solar activity on long-term timescales. It is worth will be provided in future papers based on analysis of Secchiʼs
noting that the results presented in this study only derive from observations.
our primary analysis of the new digital data. Priority was given Table 3 lists the documents of the Secchi collection in the
to the derivation of group numbers from the new digital data INAF OAR archive, with information on their position (shelf
because those numbers can readily be used for recalibrations of mark) in the archive, while Table 4 lists the position in the
the several existing group sunspot number series that enter
many studies and models (see Section 1). That is not the case 13
https://www.internetculturale.it/it/64/partner/29648/biblioteca-e-
for other data that could be extracted from Secchi’s drawings, archivio-storico-dell-osservatorio-astronomico-di-roma

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 269:53 (19pp), 2023 December Ermolli et al.

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